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THE GENTTJEMA .N.

BY

FRANCIS LIEBER, C. ]on'::'llDER OF TUE ISSIITUTE OF FRAXCE, .o\.VTliOR OF" CIVIL UBERTY .\XD SELf-oOYERXMEX'I," ETC.

6::gi:rh /tit!) mutlJ (!;;n!lIrgtl) Itbition.

PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIP PIN COT T & 00 lSCi4. Euj'-'r. ~'rJ, arcqnling tf) _\ct of Ccmgt'(':-o"l, ill tIto y(~a.r 1'-)O:J~ by t'll.iXCI:; I.H:mm, ill tile Clerk':; Ofii{'{' of the' Distr'irt Court of the lillilt" l ;-:'tatC:-1 I:", flU' ~!)ntli('J'n nh;trict uf XI\\' YI)rl~. ADVERTISEMENT

FOR THE THIRD EDITION.

THE manuscript of the third edition, with many additions and some corrections, had been lying for years in the author's library, when recently he found that in 1862 this little work had been issued from the British press, with a preface by "E. B. Shuld­ ham, Ch. Ch. Oxon." Possibly a reprint of the English edition might be published in America, did not the author himself furnish the public with a new one. This is the reason why the present third, or, if the Engli1111 publication bc counted, fourth, edition, is now issued even in the midst of our civil war, which leads us to think of graver and far dif­ ferent things. I have retained the form of an address, for reasons given in the preface to the second edition; and I have not hesitated to add remarks which may ap­ pear as anachronisms in a discourse delivered so long ago as in the year 1846. F. L.

3

PART OF THE PREFACE TO TllE SECOND EDITION, PUBLISHED IN THE YEAR 1847.

TilE students of Miami University, in the State of Ohio, did me the honor of inviting me, during the past summer, to deliver an address on the even­ ing before their Commencement Day. I had never visited that teeming region of the spreading West, and gladly accepted the invitation. The addre s was printed, according to custom, and I wa fur­ nished with a liberal supply of copies, not sufficient, however, to satisfy all persons who seemed desirous of perusing it. Repeated propositions to republish it were made; but they would not have induced me to venture upon a second edition of so fugitive a composition, had not some trustees and many stu­ dents of our own institution desired me to do it. . . . I now offer the following pages, still called on the title-page an address, but forming in reality an essay. For, in preparing the copy for republication, I have not only felt at liberty to make alterations and many additions, but I have thought it my duty 5 6 PREFACE TO TllE SECOND EDITION. to do so, simply because my composition is now to be read, and not to be heard, and because I was desirous of rendering it less unworthy of a second issue from the press. I must beg the reader to keep this fact in mind, should he, in perusing these pages, feel disposed critically to compare the present length of the dis­ course with the time which ought in fairness to limit orally-delivered addresses, and possibly to charge me with a failing against which I have a strong aversion,-the error of detaining hearers, or readers, of speeches, addresses, exhortations, mes­ sages, and documents, beyond reasonable bounds. No one acknowledges more readily than myself the inconvenience arising from lengthy lucubra­ tions and unmeasured effusions. They war with a virile style, with vigorous thought, and close atten­ tion, and lead to an unfortunate passiveness in the hearers who are patient only because their minds fall into a state of half-absorbing dulness, assimi­ lating with themselves what is said as little as the sponge assimilates the moisture which it absorbs. \Ve must acknowledge that inordinately long, shal­ low speaking has become a national and, I fear, an unnerving evil, which it is full time to amend, if character, the true source of national greatness, is PREFACE TO TUE SECOND EDITION. 7

dearer to us than speeches; but as to the pages I here offer, the reader will remember what I just stated,-that the composition, although retaining the form of an address, has become in reality an essay, and as such I would hope that it is not too long in proportion to the importance of its subject, when we consider it as an element of the high and various civilization which has become the proud inheritance and responsible talent of the vast family composed of all the advanced nations. F.L. January, 184'7.

THE CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN.*

YOUNG GENTLEMEN: The very word by which I have the pleasure of addressing you will form the subject of the address, which, in the spirit of great kind­ ness, you have called upon me, unknown to you as I am, to delh·er on this festive day. I tender you my cordial thanks for this proof of your regard; but, in doing so, I must remind you that I find difficulties of no common cha­ racter surrounding me at this moment. My foot treads for the first time the soil of your Rylvan State; I am unacquainted with what may be peculiar to your society, or character­ istic of your institution. I thus may stand

* Originl111y an Address delivered to the students of !lliumi University. Ohio, on Commencemenl Eve 184G. (/ 10 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. in danger of losing myself with you in unpro­ fitable generalities. Let me beg you, there­ fore, to bear with me, should you consider my subject not sufficiently characteristic for this particular occasion, for which I have selected the Character of the Gentleman. It appeared to me that an inquiry into the proposition, What is the true character of the gentleman, and what rules of action do we derive from the results of this inquiry? might be made useful and instructive to young men who, in receiv­ ing a liberal education, are preparing them­ selves for the most important walks of prac­ tical life, or the spheres ofliterature, eloquence, and public action. Young as you are, you must have observed, that the term gentleman is used in common intercourse indeed almost unmeaningly, or as a term merely indicating that we do not mean the opposite; but that the word has also come to designate, in a direct and positive manner, a character of high and oven lofty attributes, and, at the same time, is employed on occa­ sions apparently much differing in their na­ CIlARACTER OF TIlE GENTLEMAN. 11

ture. It is made use of as an incentive in education at home and in training at school for those who are yet sporting through the age of boyhood. Everyone of us has felt his boyish heart glow more warmly when our parent or teacher said, with smiling approval, "You arc a little gentleman j" and Dr. Thomas Arnold, the solid scholar, the loving Christian, devoted friend of liberty, and great school­ master, pronounced it his highest aim to make the boys intrusted to his care feel like Christian gentlemen. An English writer, in order to express most strongly his admiration of Plato's works, says that they are pervaded by a spirit, almost, of a Christian gentleman j* an officer of the army or navy may be tried for" con­ duct unbecoming a gentleman,"-acharge ruin­ ous to his career, if the court pronounces him guilty j "on the word of a gentleman," is

* There is a work, published some years ago, which nevertheless I have not yet met with: The Christian Gentleman's Daily Walk. By Sir Archi­ bald Edmonstone, Bart. Third edition, rearranged and enlarged. 12 OHARAOTER OF TIlE GENTLEMAN. considered among men of character equiva­ lent to a solemn asseveration, and the charge "he is no gentleman," as one of the most de­ grading that can be brought against a man of education. You would understand me at once as being desirous of conveying a grave idea, were I to say that Socrates, though condemned by vulgar envy, died passionless, a philosopher and a gentleman, or that Charles 1. of Eng­ land, after having long prevaricated, and occasionally stooped to unworthy practices, demeaned himself, during his trial and on the scaffold, like a gentleman. Erskine, the great advocate, said, in one of his pleadings, "He is an English gentleman, the best thing a man can be;" and Townsend, in his "History of the IIouse of Commons," calls it, The society of the first gentlemen in the world. When Nicholas, the Emperor of Russia, conversing with the English ambassador, Sir IIamilton Seymour, on the state of Turkey, was desirous of impressing the latter that he was speaking with perfect truth, he said, " Now CHARACTER OF TilE GENTLEMAN. 13

I desire to speak to you as a friend and as a gentleman."* The emperor was speaking in French j yet he used the English term" gen­ tleman." I give in conclusion of these instances Judge Talfourd's words, which he uttercd on the bench, in a case tried at the Bristol assizes, shortly before his sudden death. The evi­ dence provcd that the defendant, while in the theatre, had said to the plaintiff, "Do not speak to me: I am a gentleman, and you are a tradcsman." "Gentleman," said the learned judge, "is a term which does not apply to any station. The man of rank who deports him­ self with dignity and candor, and the trades­ man who discharges the duties of life with honor and integrity, are alikc entitled to it j nay, the humblest artisan, who fulfils the obli­ gations cast upon him with virtue and with honor, is more entitlcd to the name of gentle­ man than the man who could indulge in offen­

* Sir H. Seymour's despatch of January 22, 1853. 1-1 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLE))lAN. sive and ribald remarks, however big his sta­ tion."*

* Different meanings are given to the word, as appeo,rs from the following. The Englishmo,n (Indio,n paper) of the 28th June, 1850, gave the following:-We have read severo,l very charac­ teristic letters, which we regret we are not permitted to publish; but one has just been handed to us for that pur­ pose, and we accordingly subjoin it. The affair, as re­ lated to us, is as follows. A ~Ir. Morgan, employed in a. public office, in sending a small sum due to Mr. Rowe, addressed him as Sergeant Rowe. The sergeant's better half was incensed at this, he being a tailor by trade, and employed in the clothing department, and probably ex­ pected to be addressed as esquire. She wrote an angry letter to the offender, who, considering the sergeant implicated, complained to the commanding officer of the station, and, not obtaining the redress he expected, forwarded his complaint to the commander-in-chief, from whom he re­ ceived the following reply, which we think would have been recognized without the signature.

CAMP, April 18,1850. SIR :-1 ho,ve received your complaint, o,nd your very sensible remo,rks on Mrs. Sergeant Rowe's letter. There is, as you say, nothing disgmceful in being a ,sergeant, any more than in being a to,ilor, which by your lctter Ser­ geo,nt Rowe appears to be. My opinion is that he who wears a uniform is of higher rank than he who makes it, and the sergeant is, in my mind, much the highest in rank of the two! All8oldier& are gentlemen, and tailoT8 are only CIIARACTER OF TIlE GENTLElIIAN. 15

,Ve naturally ask, then, wbat is tbe mean­ ing of this comprehensive term, and is there tailors! But it seems that J\Irs. Rowe t.hinks otherwise, and prefers being a tailor's wife to being an officer's wife. Now, in my opinion, a lady has a right to hold her own opinion on these matters, and I am unable to give you any redress, because my commission as commlLnder-in-chief gives me no power to make ladies apologize for being saucy, which is an unfortunate habit t.hat t.hey fall into at times, and more especially t.hose who are good-looking, which I suppose Mrs. Sergeant Rowe happens to be. As to the sergeant having written the letter, that is neither here nor t.here. Some husbands cannot well help doing as they are ordered, and he may be innocent of mnlice. The only thing that I can do is to advise you to apply to your superior, tbe collector and magistrate of Farruck­ abad, who will represent the insult which has been put upon you by Mr. Sergeant Rowe (as you state), and, if possible, lIlajor Tucker will endeavor to persuade the lady to apologize for calling you an ass. More than giving you this advice I cannot do. C. J. NAPIER, Commander-in-Chief· But against this wayward letter I must be permitt.ed to quote a passage of the Epilogue to "Dr. Birch and his Young Friends," a poem puhlished in England in the year 1848:­ "Come wealth or want, come good or ill, Let young and old accept their purt, And bow before the awful will, And bear it with an honest heart. 2 16 CHARACTER OF TIlE GENTLEMAN. any thing substantial in the character which it designates, or is it an idol, arbitrarily set

Who misses or who wins the prize? Go, lose or conquer as you can: But if you fail, or if you rise, Be each, pray God, a gentleman.

"A gentleman, or old or young! (Bear kindly with my humble lays)­ The sacred chorus first was sung Upon the first of Christmas days: The shepherds heard it overhead, The joyful angels raised it then:­ Glory to heaven on high, it said, And peace on earth to gentle men."

This punning on "gentle" in the word gentleman oc­ curs very frequently in English literature. Gentle, as in gentlefolk and gentleman, meant originally belonging to a gens, just as in modern times the expression" of family" is used. It is this meaning that gave so che­ rished a meaning to the word gentleman in the Middle Ages. Many of my readers may not be acquainted with that remarkable passage in Juliana Barnes's book on Armol"Y, which Dr. Allibone has given in his "Critical Dictionary of English Literature." Juliana Berners 0'· Barnes was a priol"ess towards the end of the fourteenth century, distinguished for beauty and learning. IIer men­ tioned work begins with the following piece of heraldry: "Of the offspring of the gentilman Jafcth come Hn.brn.­ ham, Moysee, Aron, and the profettys; and also the kyng of the right lyne of Mary, of whom that gentilman CIlARACTER OF TIlE GENTLE~fAN. 17

up by fickle fashion beside morality, perhaps above religion? Has it become a caricature, however innocent at first, or ought it to be well known and attentively cultivated? I must not detain you with the well-known etymologies of the word, given among others by Gibbon, nor with its meaning in the Eng­ lish law. Blackstone's Commentaries, or any lJl'oper book of reference, will speedily satisfy the curious on this point. Let uS rather endeavor to ascertain what is meant at present by those w'ho choose their words with care and knowledge, when they use the term gentleman in its highest accepta­ tion. You may sec it frequently stated that gentleman means gentle man, which is neither etymologically correct, nor true as to its pre­ sent peculiar meaning. Gentleness is indeed an element of the truo gentleman, as we shall amply see j but it alone docs not constitute the gcntleman. If it did, we would not stand in

Jhesus was borne, very God nnd mnn; after his mnnboode kynge of the land of Jude nnd of Jiles, gentillllnn by his modre Mary, prince of cote nrmure." 18 CilARACTER OF TilE GE~TLE~IAN. need of the word. The word gentleman was formed before gentle came to signify kindli­ ness of soul; but it is nevertheless instructiye to trace all the meanings now assigned to the words derived from the Latin gens, through their different changes. Let me advise you to reflect on the meaning of Gentle, and of the different meanings of the COTrcsponding words in other languages, and their gradual growth out of that first and Roman root Gens. I believe the word gentleman signifies that character which is distinguished by strict honor,* self-possession, forbearance, generous as well as refined feelings, and polished de­ portment,-a eharacter to which all meanness, explosive irritableness, and peevish fretfulness are alien; to which, conseqnently, a generous candor, scrupulous veracity, and essential

* A reviewer has hlamed me for using t.he word honor and not saying what I mean, adding that people use honor in very different ways: some think it consists in paying debts incurred at game, others in treating ladies defe­ rentially but not caring how many servant-girls may be seduced. Did the reviewer l'enlly mean that I should build a causeway of definitions as I went along? CIIARACTER OF TIlE GENTLE~IAN. 19 truthfulness, couragc, both moral and phy­ sical, dignity, self-respect, a studious avoid­ ancc of gi,ing offcnce to others or oppressing them, and liberality in thought, argument, and conduct, are habitual and have become natural. Perhal)s we are justified in saying that the character of the gentleman implies an addition of refinement of fceling and lofti­ ness of conduct to the rigid dictates of mo­ ralityand the purifying precepts of religion. It seems to me that we always connect with the word gentleman the ideas of honor, polish, collectcdne s of mind, and liberal disposition, and feel that its antagonistic characters are­ ifyou will permit me, in the spirit ofphilosoph i­ cal inquiry, to u e words some of which do not often find a befitting place in a gentlemanly discourse-the clown, the gossip, the back­ biter, the dullard, coward, braggart, fretter, s,nggerer, the snob, the flunkey, the bully, the ruffian, and the blackguard, according to the special attribute of the gentleman, the op­ posite to which we may be desirous of pointing out in thc antagonistic character. 2'* 20 CHARACTER OF TIlE GENTLElIIAN.

If I use here the word polish, I mean, in­ deed, that urbanity which, in most cases, is the effect of a careful education and choico intercourse, consisting, in other words, in high breeding, but which, nevertheless, may result from native qualities so strong that subsequont cultivation may become comparatively unim­ portant. There are native gentlemen, as there are native captains, bards, orators, and diplo­ matists. Whoever has read Captain Wilson's account of the Pelew Islands* will concede that the king Abba Thulle and his brothers, especially Raa Kook, were, in all their nudity and want of acquaintance with white men, as delicately feeling and complete gentlemen as can be found in any nation of long-planted civilization; and I have at this moment an old, now departed, negro slave in my mind, whom I have never seen otherwise than oblig­ ing, polite, anticipating, dignified, true, and

* Account of the Pelew Islands, composed from the Journals of Captain Henry Wilson, wrecked on those Islands in the Ship Antelope, in 1783, by O. Keate, Esq. : 4th edition, London, 1789. CHARACTER OF THE GENTLE~lAN. 21 forbearing,-in short, a gentleman in his lowly sphere. As a matter of course, this can take place by way of exception only i but the more difficult the exception the more honorable is the instance. A term which has so long a history as that of gentleman, and whose meaning has passed through so many phases, is, naturally, still used in many different senses i nor can the cognate words, such as gentility,* be expected

* The following extract-somewhat amusing to us in the middle of the nineteenth century, which is so deeply marked by broad, popular, national impulses-is taken from" Visions of the Times of Old; or, the Antiquarian Enthusiast," by Robert Bigsby, Esq., LL.D.: 3 vols., London, 1849: " D egrees of Gentility. "The grant of a coat-of-arms constituting, therefore, a valuable di tinction, a mark by which certain parties are hereditarily to be recognized as superior in rank to the general body of the people, it necessarily follows that any usurpation of that privilege by others is an offence, both in politics and morals, which deserves and should always meet with a ready exposure and punishment. There are four several qualities or degrees of gentility arising from the grant of coat-armor. One who inherits a coat-of-arms from his father is styled a gentleman of 22 CHARACTER OF TIlE GENTLE"rA~. to correspond to one and the same sense of the main word. The different meanings of words branch out in different directions, and their derivatives anu cognate terms branch out for themselves. It frequently happens, espe­ cially in the English language, that the ac1jcc­ Eve formed of a noun receives an additional

birth; if he derives it from his grandfather, he is termed a gentleman of blood; and if he succeeds to the same from his great-grandfather or other more distant pro­ genitor, he is entitled a gentleman of ancestry; if be obtains tbe grant himself, he is simply a gentleman of coat-armor. From these fn.cts it is readily seen, that when once a family is created by a grant of heraldic honol's, it obtains at every remove from the founder an added dignity in the scale of descent, and an acknow­ ledged precedency of worth and estimation, as compared with others of later origin. The admirers of ancient blood look with compamtively little respect on arms granted at a period subsequent to the reign of the Tudors, and venerate with an almost superstitions regard the possessors of arms deduced from the rera of the Plantagencts. There are still certain appointments con­ nected with the court which can only be filled by gentle­ men of ancient families; and it is much to be regretted that tbe good and wise regulation wbich excluded from the profession of the bar all but gentlemen of four descents of coat-armor was ever rescinded." CIlARACTER OF TIlE OENTLE:\lAN. 23 meaning or one widely different from that which we would have a right to expect did the grammatical relationship alone furnish us "with a sure guidance. These topics do not lie within the limits of our inquiry. Our en­ deavor is to ascertain and dwell upon the no­ blest and purest meaning which, consciously or unconsciously, is given to the term;-an adaptation which has legitimately developed itself in the progress of the race to which we belong. The character of the gentleman produces an equality of social claims, and superscdes rank, office, or title. It establishcs a republic of intercourse, as we speak of the republic of letters. Nowhere appears, and indeed nowhere ean appear, this fact more strikinglythan in the mess-room of a :British regiment, where the colonel and the ensign, who, under arms, stand in the relation of the strictest military di ­ cipline, meet on the common ground of gentle­ manly equality, and freely accord to eaeh other the privileges to which every member of the great commonwealth of comity is f:1irly ell­ 2-1: CIIARACTER OF TIlE GENTLE)IAN. titled. The character of the gentleman passes the bounds of statcs and tongues, and, without enfeebling our love of country (did it so, we would repudiate it), gives a passport acknow­ ledged through the wide domain of civiliza­ tion. In antiquity, almost every thing was circumscribed not only by nationality, but even by the mural confines of the city; in modern times, the freemasonry of a liberal education, of good manners, and propriety of conduct,-in a word, of a gcntlemanlike bear­ ing,-extends over entirc hemispheres. It is a sway which is daily widening. Turkey is, perhaps, now in the very act of giving in her adhesion to the community of gentlemanly nations. In order to place the type of the character, which we are contemplating, more distinctly before your minds, I feel induced to give you the translation of a passage which I found in a valuable French work, entitled" British India in 1843," by Count Warren. The author, a Frenchman, was educated at Paris, obtained a lieutenancy in a British royal regiment in CHARACTER OF TIlE GENTLE:lIAN.

India, and served there during nine years. My translation is literal, and you will remem­ ber that the original was written by a French­ man,-a consideration which gives peculiar force to some parts, and will induce you to make allowance for others On the score of French \"iYacity. Count Warren, speaking of his colonel and the aide-de-camp of the regiment, says,­ "I found in those two men a type essen­ tially English, and, at the same time, a degree of perfection to which it is, perhaps, not given to Frenchmen to attain. The reader must have seen that I was not disposcd to view the defects of English society with too indulgent an eye; I do not compare it, for a moment, with ours, as to engaging qualities, -urbanity, kindness, simplicity,-and as to all the delights which can render life happy, such as grace, bonhomie, and charming manners; but as we do not find the diamond in gold and silver mines, but in the laycrs of crumbled rocks and coarse sand, so do we find the most perfect type of man buried deep in the rudo 26 CHARACTER OF TIlE GENTLEMAN. elements of our neighbors: the perfect Eng­ lish gentleman is the Phcenix of the human species. There is wanting in Frenchmen, to attain to this height, nothing but a morc ele­ vated and intense sentiment of personal dig­ nity, a more religious respect for the divine part whieh the Almighty has vouchsafed to men. There are few-I might say, there is not one-among us, who is a hero before his valet-de-chambre* or his most'intimate fnend. However excellent a Frenehman may be in

* I cannot allow this passage to appear again in print, without giving wider circulation to an excellent saying, which is ascribed to the philosopher IIegel, however little it may seem to be connected with the subject immediately in hand. Great men were spoken of, when some one flippantly repeated the old saying that no one is a hero before his valet-de-chambre. "This is true," said IIegel, "most true; not, however, because no hero is a hero, but be­ cause a valet-de-chambre is a valet-de-chambre." A community sinks very low when it loses the capa­ city of acknowledging greatness, and an individual cari­ catures in a despicable manner the calmness of a gcntle­ man, when he interprets the Horatian Nil admirare as oonsisting in stolid indifferenoe to t.he noblest and the worst things. CIlARACTER OF TIlE GENTLEMAN. 27 society before strangers or in the presence of ladies, his very bonhomie causes him at once to lower himself, so soon as he is alone with the friend of his heart, the companion of his studies, the confidant or messenger of his first follies. This results, I shall be answered, from an excess of two good qualities,-from our absence of affectation and the gayety so cha­ racteristic of the French temper j but we have also generally the defects of these two qua­ lities,-an inclination to let ourselves go with­ out restraint, impurity of thought and con­ versation,* exaggeration, and harlequinade,t which we are astonished to meet with at every moment in the gra.vest men and best minds. The perfect English gentleman never follows solely his impulses, and never lowers himself. He carries conscientiousness and the remembrance of his dignity into the smallest details of life. His temper never betrays him,

* Grivoi8 in the original, which is, literally translated, smuttiness. t The original is IIarlequinade: I could not translate it buffoonery. 3 28 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. for it is of the same character with his ex­ terior; his house might be of glass; everyone of his acts can bear the broadest light and defy criticism. From this we see that the individual, whom we have delineated, is not a product purely indigenous: he must under­ go several transplantations, respire tho air of the continent, and especially of France, in order to attain to perfect maturity, and to get rid of certain qualities inherent in the native soil-disdainfulness, prejudices, &c. But, if education, circumstances, and travel have favored this development, it is of him, above all, that we may say, he is the lord of crea­ tion."* The Duchess of Abrantes, as enthusiasti­ cally a French woman in feeling, opinion, and spirit, as ever loved la belle France, says, in her :M:emoirs, that she must relate an anecdote of Lord Wellington, when fight­

* " 'Avant tout Je wis gentilhomme Anglais,' was the preface of the fierce message sent by the then (1815) foremost man of the world to the King of France."­ KINGLAKE, Invasion of the Crimea. CIIARACTER OF THE GENTLE;)IAN. 2fl

ing against her husband in Spain, " showing him in that favorable aspect which is really the radiant light surrounding the true English gentleman."* So far our French authors, the first of whom is right in calling the character, designated the gentleman, a type peculiarly Anglican. It belongs to the English race; nor is it long since it has been developed in its present and important form. Lord Campbell, in his" Lives of the Lord Chancellors of England," says that one of the earliest instances of the word gentleman being used in the modern sense was when in 1640 the Commons, unwilling to vote supplies to Charles I. before settling their grievances, although the king had pro­ mised to give due consideration to the latter, were told by Lord Keeper Finch that they

* Vol. ix. p. 202, Paris edition of 1835. It is with pain that now, in 1863, the author is obliged to add that nn unfortunately large number of the English people have deviated from the course of gentlemanly frankness, sym­ pathy, and largeness of heart towards a people manfully struggling for their imperilled country, ever since our eivil war began. 30 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. should freely vote the money, for" they had the word of a king, and not only so, but the word of a gentleman."* But so occurs a passage in Shakspeare :-"Sir, the king is a noble gentleman;" and Pistol calls himself, in Henry Y., "as good a gentleman as the em­ peror." The passage, however, in which the poet seems to approach closest to the modern sense of the word, is that in which Antonio, a merchant, is called "a true gentleman."t Yet it cannot be denied that throughout Shakspeare's works-that surprising pano­ rama of human life-the term gentleman is

* See note to page 561, vol. ii. of "Lives of the Lord Chancellors." Lord Byron distinguishes in a manner somewhat similar between nobleman and gentleman, when, in the preface to Marino Faliero, he observes tbat "it is the fashion to underrate Horace Walpole; firstly, because he was a nobleman; and, secondly, because be was 0. gentleman." In Prussia, characteristically enough, the term officer had acquired in some particulars the meaning of man of honor, of gentleman. "My lord general, on the word of an officer, I am far more of an imperialist tban 0. Hanoverian," was said by Frederic William I.-RANKE, History of Prussia, English Trans­ lation, vol. i. p. 215. t Merchant of Venice, IlL, 4. CIIARACTER OF THE GENTLE;\IAN. 31

almost exclusively used either for nobleman, or a man of the higher classes with polished and graceful manners; or its meaning is in a state of transition between the knight of high and sensitive honor, and tho modern gentle­ man; but it hardly ever designates the true modern gentleman, although the word occurs nearly five hundred times, according to the laborious concordance for which the public is obliged to 1I1:rs. Cowden Clarke. You will, of course, not misunderstand the position I have advanced, that the preseut type of the gentleman is of modern develop­ ment and Anglican origin, as if I could mean that there are no true gentlemen in other countries, or that there have been none in antiquity. All I can wish to convey is, that with other races, and at other periods, the character of the gentleman has not developed itself as a national type, and as a readily understood and universally acknowledged aggregate of certain substantial and lofty attributes; nor is there now, in any other language, a word corresponding in meaning 3<' 32 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. to the word gentleman, though all of Latin origin have words of the same etymology. Even in English, the word gentlewoman has not followed, in the modification of its mean­ ing, the corresponding change in the signifi­ cation of the term gentleman, though the word lady has done so upon the whole. The French word gentilhomme hn,s retained the meaning which we give to the English word cavalier. Instances of gentiemanliness in antiquity, or with other races, are not wanting. The ancient Dherma Sastm of the IIindoos ordain that a man who loses a law-suit shall not be liable to punishment if, in leaving the court, he murmurs or openly rails against the judge, -a law, it will be acknowledged, exclusively dictated by a spirit of gentlemanly forbear­ ance. 'When Lycul'gus treated Alcander, who had put out one of his eyes, with for­ bearancc and even confidence, he proved him­ self a gcntlcman, as bc did towards his nephew Cbarilaus, undcr thc most tempting circum­ stances. "When Cmsar, aftcr tbe battle at CHARACTER OF TilE GENTLEMAN. 33

Pharsalia, burned the correspondence of Pom­ pey, which might have disclosed to him the names of all his personal and most dangerous enemies, he acted as a gentleman j if, indeed, he did not throw a secret glance at them, which, from the general tenor of bis life, we have, perhaps, no right to suppose. Alexander began his career as a high-bred gentleman towards friend and foe, and could never wholly disguise that nature had moulded him for one j but what with withering absolute power, in­ toxicating victories, and riotous intemperance, she was robbed of her fair handiwork. The pages of Prescott impress us with the sad belief that Montezuma was a gentleman, but he was not treated as such j for the Spaniards, punctiliously courteous among themselves, did not think it necessary to bear themselves as cavaliers-how rarely even as men I-towards the" unbaptized rabble." The French officer who, in the Peninsular battle, charged the Eng­ lish commander, but merely saluted bim when he found that tbe latter had only the bridle­ arm, and could not fight, was assuredly 3. 3-1 CHARACTER OF TIlE GENTLE)IAN. gentleman.* But we speak here of national types, of distinct classes of characters, clearly stamped by an imprint known and acknow­ ledged by the whole people;t and as to anti­ quity, we need only remember the scurrilous

* J otee Persaud, a Parsee banker, was called by Lord Ellenborough, years ago, in the House of Lords," a gentle­ man j for geutleman he is, remarkable for his gentleman­ like manners whel'e all have such manners." t We have a parallel case in the character of the phi­ lanthropist. There were mild and charitable persons in antiquity. The account of the Samaritan was felt and understood by every hearer. The ancient Hindoo law­ giver, who sublimely commanded, ,. Be like the sandal­ tree, which sheds perfume on the axe that fells it," was inspired with more than mere philan thropy j yet the type of the philanthropist, that combination of attributes which we associate with the word, is a modern type, and was unknown in antiquity or the Middle Ages. There woulll be something strangely odd in speaking of an ancient Roman philanthropist, except it were done for the very purpose of indicl1ting how the individual in an­ tiquity anticipated the character and stood alone in his virtues, now connected with the term philanthropist. The type of the opposition member is another. There were citizens in ancient times, as in the ~liddle Ages, who, though opposed to the ruling power, did not brood over sedition or revolt: yet the loyal opposition member i~ a strictly modern type,-a noble and indispensable type, yet fully developed only since the times of George r. CHARACTER OF THE GENTLE;)IAN. 35

invectives with which even the first orators did not think it beneath them to assail their opponents in the Roman senate or the Athenian ecclesia, to be aware that, in our times, a member would be instantly declared out of order and put down, were he to make URe of similar language and resort to equal per­ sonalities, even in assemblies in which, to the detriment of public tone and public service, deviations from parliamentary decorum no longer form rare exceptions. Falsehood did not disgrace with the ancients, as it does with modern free nations. It does not appear difficult to account for the fact that the peculiar character which we call the gentleman should bc of comparatively late development, and have shown itself first fully developed with the English people. Each of the various constituents of this charar.ter required peculiar social conditions to comc to maturity. The Middle Ages wcre at times­ though not so often as is frequently supposed -sufficiently favorable to the development of chivalrous honor under the united influence 36 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLE:\IAN. of an active love of individual independence, and a softening reverence for the softer sex. But one of the pervading characteristics of those angry times was that of exclusive pri­ vilege, contradistinguished from a broad ac­ knowledgment of tho rights of all and a willing recognition of humanity in every one,-shown even in a graduated duty of allegiance. Me­ diawal liberty was almost always a chartered one, extorted by him who had the power to extort, and grudged by him who had not the power to withhold. Modern liberty, on the contrary, is oonstitutional, that is, national, reoognizing rights in all, oovering the land, and oompassing the power-holder himself. The ideal of modern liborty is that it be broadoast; tho ideal of medireval freedom was that of tho highest amount and oomplex of privileges. Each privilege begets the desire of another in those who are deprived of it, and the idea of privilege implies that of ex­ clusiveness; but that medireval exclusiveness, and the oonstant feuds and appeals to the sword, prevented the growth of the colleotorl CHARACTER OF THE GENTLElIlAN. 37

calmness, ready forbearance, and kind reci­ procity which we have acknowledged as ne­ cessary elements of the modern gentleman. Later periods, especially in the progress of manners in France, were propitious to the development of refinement and a polished deportment j but it was at the cost of moral­ ity, and took place under a daily growing despotism, which in its very nature is adverse to mutual reliance and acknowledgment, to candor and dignity of character, however favorable it may be to stateliness of carriage. Veracity is a plant which grows in abundance on the soil of civil liberty alone, and eyen there not always. The character of the gen­ tleman, such as we now cherish it, was not, therefore, fairly developed, before the popular institutions and a broader civil liberty in Eng­ land added a more general consciousness of rights, with their acknowledgment in others, a general esteem for candor, sclf-respect, and dignity, together with native English manli­ ness and calmness, to the spirit of chivalry which, in some degree, was still traditional in 38 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLE~IAN.

the aristocracy, and to the courtesy of man­ ners which perhaps had been adopted from abroad. The character of the cavalier was essentially aristocratic j that of the gentleman is rather of a popular cast, or of a civic na­ ture, and shows in this, likewise, that it belongs to modern times. The cavalier distinguished himself by his dress,-by plume, lace, and cut j the gentleman shuns external distinction, and shows his refinement within the limits of plain attire. The development of this type is owing, in a great measure, to the fact, important in all branches of English history, that, accurately and legally speaking, there is no nobleman in England. There are peers, but their sons are commoners. They had the aristocratic breed­ ing, lofty aspirations, and also the aristocratic disdain: still they were legally common citi­ zens, and in a generation or two became, fre­ quently, In-aetieally so. On the other hand, the large landholder, though undistinguished by nouility, felt, descending as he often did from the Norman conquerors, that he was CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 39

what the nobleman on the continent was, where his name would infallibly have been distinguished by that particle which desig­ nates the nobleman. Yet the richest land­ holder, if not made a peer, was the plain ~fr. A. or B. IIere was the middle ground: this formed the palpable transition. I find a book, of which the twelfth edition was published as late as the year 1755, with the title, "The Gentleman Instructed in the Conduct of a Virtuous and Happy Life. Written for the Instructionofa Young Noble­ man. To which is added a Word to the Ladies. In two volumes." The title illustrates what I have said j and throughout the work the term gentleman means a person of high birth or standing in society.* The moral reflections consist in urging the necessity that the gentleman should in conduct and virtue rise to this elevation, already existing, and making him the gentle­ man.

* Dr. Johnson's definitions of the word gentleman show the same. 4, 40 CHARACTER OF THE OENTLE;)IAN.

The character of the gentleman includes whatever was valuable in the cavalier and the earlier knight, but it stands' above him, even with refcrence to that very element which constituted a chief attribute of the cavalier,-to honor. Untarnished honor de­ pends in a great measure upon truthfulness j and it is a cheering fact, that the world has become more candid within the last two centuries. The details of the history of do­ mestic intercourse, of traffic, of judicial trans­ actions and bribes, of parliamentaTY proce­ dures, of high politics and international affairs, bear us out in this position, however painfully we may even now, far too frequently, be forced to observe infractions of the sacred law of plain-dealing, religious candor, and gentle­ manly veracity in individuals and in govern­ ments.* In ascribing greateT veTacity to the people

* 'rruthfulness obliges us to add that the meaning of the last remark has become sadly intensified within the last ten years. May it be but a transient reflux in the general progress of humn.nity !-[Added in the year 1863.] CIIARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 41 of free countries III modern times, I may appear Lo gainsay other and distinguished writers. Montaigne actually says, that we moderns punish the charge of a lie so severely, which the ancients did not, because we lie habitually much more, and must save appear­ ances. But Montaigne wrote in France, at an evil period; and we may well ask, besides, whether antiquity with all its details was vivid in his mind when he penned that passage. If the position I have advanced be wrong, I have, at any rate, not hastily come to it. I am con­ vinced that there is at present more truth in the intercourse of men, although we speak and write less bluntly. Who has Rtudied history without meeting occasionally with acts of deception, which we find it difficult to understand, because at present public opinion would frown upon them and utterly disgrace their authors? When in modern times a flagrant act of "adjourned veracity" has been detected, the peccant, though they be emperors, show themselves anxious to re­ move the stain. Were there not times when 42 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLE:.\IAN. high officers and statesmen gloried in success­ ful deception? Weare not, individually, better before an omniscient eye, that sees all our potential crimes ::md vices j but public opinion keeps us straighter and accustoms us to better things. And public opinion has ac­ quired this power, because it can widely speak out, from nation to nation. Let me give you a striking instance how lightly veracity was held in those times, so frequently called chivalrous. I, with many thousands, revere the memory of Dante,-of him who stands with Homer and Shakspeare in the foremost line of the high-priests of song. It is for this reason that I have ever read with deep aversion the occurrence with Friar Al­ berigo, in his Inferno,-an eminently ethical poem,-indeed, that of the great poems pro­ duced by our race in which morality forms as act.ive and producive an element, as heroism in Homer j Man, in all his phases of action and ill his various types, in Shakspeare j or the individual, in his subjective enjoyment and suffering, in Goethe. CHARACTER OF TIlE GENTLElIIAN. 43

In this immortal poem, Dante sings, that he came to a frozen lake in which the damned suffer from everlasting cold and have their first tears frozen in their eyes, so that all the others which the lost ones ever weep burn inwardly. There he asks one of the despond­ ing who he is. The suffering sinner begs him first to remove his frozen tears, that for onee he may enjoy the long-missed luxury of weeping,-weeping a little only. First, re­ plies Dante, tell me who thou art, and then I will do thy desire, " and if I do not extricate thee, may I have to go to the bottom of the ice." The wretched convict of hell confides, tells his story, and piteously adds, "Now reach thy hand and open my eyes;" but Dante says, "And I opened them not for bim, and to be rude to him was courtesy." Thus repre­ senting himself in a song he knew he was singing for all his country and for posterity, in an act of meanness* that must shock every

* Nor does Dante present himself more as a gentleman in the thirty-second canto, where he describes himself liS pulling out the hair of Boccn. 4'" 44 CHARACTER OF TilE GENTLE;\IAN. candid man. It is not" sickly philanthropy" in us that makes us feel thus; it was not over· wrought religion in Dante that could induce him thus to represent himself: it was a mor­ bidness produced by harsh dogmas, such as we find it again aud in action, in the Spaniards towards the Mexicans and Peruvians, that could cause Dante to sing his own abandon­ ment of veracity, of pity, and a sinner's sym­ pathy with sinners forever lost. Where so many distinct attributes, held in high and common esteem, are blended into one character, we must be prepared to meet with corresponding caricatures or mimick­ ing impersonations of trifling dispositions and depraved passions. All noble things have their counterfeits, and every great idea or exalted type has its caricature in history. So is the saint's counterfeit the hypocrite; the patriot is caricatured in the demagogue; the thrifty husband in the miser; the frank com­ panion in the gossip; the chaste in the prude; the sincere reformer in the reckless J acobin, and the cautious statesman or firm believer in CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 45

the necessity of progressive improvement, dis­ trusting abrupt changes, in the idolater of the past and the Chinese worshipper of the forefathers. In a similar manner, we find the sensitive honor of the gentleman counterfeited in the touchy duellist; his courage by the arrant bully; his calmness of mind by super­ cilious indifferenee, or a fear of betraying even the purest emotions; his refinement of feeling by sentimentality or affeetation; his polished manners by a punctilious observance of trivial forms; his ready compliance with conventional forms, in order to avoid notice or giving offence to others, or his natural hllbit of moving in those forms which have come to be established among the accomplished, by the silly hunter after new fashions, or a censurable and en­ feebling love of approbation; his liberality by the spendthrift; his dignity and self-respect by conceit or a dogged resistance to the ac­ knowledgment of error or wrong; his candor by an ill-natured desire of telling unwelcome truths; his freedom from petulance by incapa­ city of enthusiasm; his composure by egotism, 46 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. and his aversion from vulgarity by a pretended horror at coming in contact with fellow-men of a different set or class, and by an indifference to the motives which incite vast masses to action, in the same proportion as these mo­ tives are general. But these reflections from distorting mirrors do not detract from the real worth and the important attributes of the well-proportioned original j nor can it be said that this character has been set up as a purely ethical model in spite of religion. I am con­ vinced that it was possible to conceive this character in its fulness only by the aid of Christianity, and believe-I say it with bow­ ing reverence-that in Rim to whom we look for the model of every perfection we also find the perfect type of that character which oc­ cupies our attention. It seems, then, plain that, in placing before us the character of the gentleman as Olle of the models of excellence, we do not allow the nimble hand of neomaniac fashion to substitute a puny idol, decked with tinsel imitations of 1mbstantial gold, for the true and lal:lting CHARACTER OF TllE GENTLE;)IAN. 47 patterns of virtue and rcligion; nor can you fail to perceive the vast practical importance of an active, ready, inward gcntlcmanliness, from which a gentlemanlike conduct as natu­ rally results as the spontaneous effect from any healthy organism. In all spheres of our lives thcre occur many acts of so complex a nature, that, if they are submitted to a long process of reasoning, which possibly may appear the morc impartial the more heartlessly it is undertaken, they will allow of a perplexing number of argu­ ments for and against, of bewildering prcce­ dents on either side, and of distinctions more embarrassing than unravelling, so that in the end we see our way less clearly than at the beginning,-acts from which, nevertheless, a mind instinct with genuinc gentlemanliness will shrink at once, as being of doubtful can­ dor, dangerous to honor, of suspicious honesty, or inclining to what is illibcral or unCligni­ tied. No mcrchant or artisan, no advocate, statesman, tcacher, or minister,-no citizen, in whatever circle he may movc-no husband 48 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLE;)IAN. or friend, none of you, in your preparatory spheres, can avoid being called upon promptly to decide in cases of this nature. Acts some­ what tinctured with what we would call un­ handsome, or slightly tainted with what may be mcan, cannot always be distinctly disccrned as such by the reasoning faculties; and yet such acts are dangerous, because they are in­ fusions ofimpurity into our soul, where nothing is at rcst, but evcry thing, good or evil, is in constant assimilating activity,-a psychologi­ cal law which is subject to far fewer exceptions, if any, than the corresponding law of assimi­ lation of matter in the animal body. History is full of these instances; daily lifc surrounds us with them; (Lnd although the pure principles as wen as precepts of religion are invaluable, and of the greatest importance to all cthic vitality, and for which indeed you can find no substitute, search where you may, yet a keen and instinctive sense and glowing love of honor, watchful and prompt sclf-re­ spect, and habitu(Ll recoiling from what is low, vulgar, coarse, and base in thought, fecling, CHARACTER OF THE GENTLE~lAN. 49 deed, or manner, form an active moral coeffi­ cient, or, if I may say so, an additional faculty quickly to receive impressions, upon which religious consciousness decides and works. Young gentlemen, a clear and vigorous in­ tellect is, in the perception and application of moral truths, as important as in any other sphere of thought or action; but the general state of the soul and the frame of mind are of greater importance; while no one will deny that gentlemanship, taken in the sense in which the word has been used here, contri­ butes to a pure general frame of mind. For­ getting the primary importance of the purity of the soul, and the belicf that the morality of human acts is ascertained by a minute weighing of their possible effects upon others, and not upon the actor himself, or by subtle definitions of the millions of acts which may occur in our lives, is one of the radical and besetting vices of the Jesuitical casuists, of an Escobar, Sa, Busenbaum, Bauny, Suarez, and innumerable other doctores graves, as they are styled by their own order,-a vice which 50 CHARACTER OF TilE GENTLE~IAN. led them to rear their amazing system of tur­ pitude, in ethics, and of tea.ching the most absolute and abject obedience to religious superiors, and at times the most disorganiz­ ing doctrines in politics.* It will be scarcely necessary here to men­ tion the question, unfortunately still at times moved, whether a man be safe if he make the law of thc land the sole standard of his moral conduct. To put this question shows the utmost confusion of morals and politics, of the righteous and the legal, of the law written in our heart and the statute printed in the hook j of the commandments of virtue, the resistance to which must remain possible, or we should lose our moral character, and the ordinances of civil authority, which must be enforced and complied with, though it be only

* Ellendorf, a Catholic priest, mentions three hundred of these doc/ores graves in his work, Jl101'0,1s and Poli­ tics of the Jesuits, according to the Writings of the most renowned theological Authors of this Order, with the motto: By their fruits ye shall know tbem. Darmstadt, 1840. It is of all Catholic works far the severest against the Jesuits with which I am acquainted. CHARACTER OF TilE GENTLE~IAN. 51

because a penalty threatens the transgressor j of the codes by which fellow-men judge a few acts of ours here beneath, and that one code by which our Maker judges our whole soul above. It shows a confusion of the highest moral idea-holiness-with a written specifi­ cation of prohibited acts j and it simply proves that he who can put this question does not know what the object of government is. But it seems to be certain that, comprehensive as this error is, a clear perception of the obliga­ tions of the gentleman is one of the safeguards against falling into it. There are thousands of actions which a gentleman cannot find the heart to perform, although the law of the land would permit them, and ought to permit them, lest an intermeddling despotism should stifle all freedom of action. Political and positive laws are not intended to be substi­ tutes for our conscience, or the sole, or even the chief, guides of our conduct through life. A man may be a heartless husband, a cruel or foolish father, a degenerate son, an unfeel­ ing brother, an ungrateful pupil, or an undutiful 5 52 CIIARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. tcachcr j he may be a carcless guardian, an irksomc neighbor, a hard creditor, or worth­ less citizen and unprincipled politician j he may be uncharitable, coarsc, captious, indo­ lent, mean, false, cowardly, selfish, sordid, and fanatical j hc may be intemperate, obsccne, find impious j he may be momlly and physic­ ally rcpulsive in every way, and a hundred times worsc than many whom the law has justly struck j and yet he may pass tbrough life unscathed by justice, possibly for the very reason that be is a mean and selfish man, who knows well how to subordinate his passions to calculating egotism. Justice and liberty cease that moment when the law strikes aught but palpable acts j yet a pcrson may lcisurely travel the whole round of infamy and still guardedly keep from within striking­ distance of the law. It ought to be so j but the law docs not sustain infamy on that ac­ count: the law is not the code of our soul j the constable is not the substitute for our conscience. ~ly young fricnds, if you apply the cbarac­ CHARACTER OF TIlE OENTLE:\IAN. 53 teristics of the gentleman, as I have felt my­ self justified and obliged to point them out, to mun's practical course, you will find, first, as to our duily life and personal intercourse, thut the calmness of mind, which we have acknowledged as a constituent of the charac­ ter of the gentleman, naturally leuds him to use temperate language, and prevents 11im from indulging in careless vulgarity, unmanly ex­ uggeration, or violent coarseness. Dealing in superlutives, substituting extravagant figures of speech for arguments or facts, and inter­ weaving our discourse with ·\Yords of the gravest import used as profane expletives, while it shows want of taste, proves also a con­ sciousness of weakness, which may consist in the churacter of the speaker and the urgument, or in his habitual perception that he is not able fully and forcibly to deliver his thoughts and feelings. :ThIen ,,·ho arc in the habit of thinking clearly, and have learned to speak promptly, perspicuously, and vigorously, are not those who deal in profane invocations or revolting imprecation; and it is an attribute 54 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLE)!AN. of the accomplished gentleman to deliver himself with propriety and to speak well, "thcre being nothing more becoming a ~gen­ tIeman, nor more useful in all the occurrences of life, than to be ablc on any occasion to speak well and to thc purposc." These are the words of a wise man and a shrewd ob­ server,-ofLocke in his" Essay on Education j" and if perhaps the philosopher alludes, in this passage, more particularly to speeches and debates proper, I must beg you to observe likewise that, important though they be, the daily conversation is more important, as the comfort, deccncy, and salubrity of the com­ mon dwellings of men are still more import­ ant than the chaste propriety or lofty style of public cdifices. The kindness of his feeling prevents him from vaunting j moroseness and aspcrity are forcign to him j and his for­ beamnce as well as generosity make him the safe keepcr of secrets, even without thc special exaction of secrecy. lIe is not med­ dlesome j and it is a principle with him not only to keep positive secrets, but to ab:;tain CHARACTER OF THE GENTLF.)lAN. 55

from talking about the personal affairs of others as a general rule, to be suspended only when there is a positive and specific reason for so doing. The discoursc of the gen­ tleman turns chiefly upon facts, not persons. He keeps a secret, even though it give him power over an antagonist, because a secret of this kind is power, and a generous use of all power is one of the essential attributes of the true gentleman. N or does he indicate that he possesses a secret; for doing so is ,anity, and conceit and vanity are undignified and lower the person that harbors them. His polish makes him the civil attendant upon the weaker sex, but his essential refinement does not allow him to carry this necessary element of all civilization to a degree of caricature, in treating women as if they were incapable of argument, and must forego the privilege of being dissented from, or of arriving at truth by their own reasoning. He shows instinctive deference to old age, and respect to superior authority. In discussions, he shows his true (haracter not only by his calmness and by 5';' 56 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLE~IAN. abstaining from offensive positiveness, but also by the fairness of his arguments. He does not recur to those many fallacies which, though they belong to vulgar minds, or whose employment shows that we consider our ad­ versaries as such, are, nevertheless, not with­ out effect in brisk disputes. The well-bred gentleman gladly seizes upon those minor yet delicate attentions which, though apparently trifling, are cheering tokens of a friendly heart, and may be compared to graceful flowerets growing by the roadside of the rugged and toilsome path of life. IIi habitual candor will make him, to use a familiar term, " off-hand" in his intercourse with friends; he delights in serving others, and, in turn, feels the luxury of being grateful. Above all, it pains him to give pain; and he does and feels all that we have mentioned, without affecta­ tion, selfishness, or pedantry. Let us, on the other hand, apply our prin­ ciples to some of the most prominent profes­ sions or situations in practical life, such as it bas formed itself with our race. Whicllcver CHARACTER OF TllE GENTLE:lIAN. 57 field, young gentlemen, you may choose for your futuro labors in practical life, it is ne­ cessary that you carry the standard of the gentleman with you, and that now, ere the manifold temptations of busy life beset you, you fix it firmly in your soul by daily prac­ tice. Those of you who intend to become divines must remember that the importance and very meaning of the minister's calling are founded upon a constant intercourse with men whom he has to teach, to guide, to save,-an in­ tercourse depending for its usefulness upon thc confidence reposed in his sincerity of faith, purity of morals, prudence, and honorable bearing. You will have no other power to support you. The government does not build your churches. If a congregation are con­ vinced that their pastor is a true Christian, a learned divine, and a perfect gentleman, he has the strongest hold on their confidence in him. He must not forget that the pulpit gives him a periodical and frequent opportu­ nity of speaking to large numbers without 58 CllARACTER 0],' TIlE GENTLEMAN. reply. This is power, ::md requires, like every l)ower, to be wielded in a gentlemanlike man­ ner, if its possessor wishes to secure himself against his own abuse of it. If, on the other hand, the divine descends into the arena of controversy,-which, however undesirable, it docs not always depend upou him to aYoid,­ he can hardly inflict a severer injury upon his sacred cause than by cxhibiting to the world, and calling forth in his adversaries, bitterness of spirit, unfairness of argument, or passion­ ate, gross, and abusive language,-in short, the conduct "unbecoming a gentleman." The great cause of the Reformation was immea­ surably injured by the undignified and eycn seurrilous eharacter of many controversial writings on both sides, in a degree which makes us still bear the consequences, and whieh greatly interfered with the diffusion of truth over Europe. Let no one persuade you that this vehemence, as the ungentlemanly bitterness and rudeness are sometimes called by way of euphemism, was nt\cess:1l'Y against yiolent enemics, and according to the spirit CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 59 of the times. It is as bigoted as to say that so selfish and sanguinary a despot as Henry VIII. was neeessary to break up the convents. No great and enduring cause stands in need of low or iniquitous meansj and every low, vulgar, or heartless word engenders two and three in reply. That which is great and true is best promoted by means high and pure. Others of you will enter the profession of the law. They will avoid many dangers in­ cident to this profession, by loyally adhering to the character of the gentleman. The ad­ vocate, in our country and in England, enjoys high privilegcs,-that is, power. Probably it is not desirable or feasible to check its abuse in all cases: at any rate, as matters stand, he can frequently abuse it without the proba­ bility of being restrained. It becomes, there­ fore, the more necessary that he check him­ self. I do not now speak of that in a lawyer's practice which is ccnsurable upon the broad and immutable principles of morality, and from which the profession of the adyocate does no more absolve than any other calling. 60 CIIARACTER OF THE GENTLE:lIAN.

What a degradation of the lawyer if, like the Japanese wife, he were incapable of doing wrong !* N or do I speak of "those too COll­ mon faults," as the great lawyer Matthew Hale said, " of misrepresenting evidence, quot­ ing precedents or books falsely, or asserting any thing confidently by which ignorant juries or weak judges arc too often wrought upon."t I believe these trespasses ftre now far rarer. Nor shall I dwell upon the fact that a gentle­ manly spirit must needs be a safeguard against becoming a "leguleius quidam cautus et acu­ tus, prffico actionum, cantor formularum, au­ ceps syllabarum."t The pettifogger and the Zegicrepa, as the Low Latin had it, are the opposites to the gentleman advocate,-one of the finest types of the citizen of a free country. N or need I mention that it is incumbent upon a judge to move scrupulously within the

,,- But, then, the Japanese husband is answerable for his wife; who is answerable for the advocate? -r Burnet's Life of Sir nbtthew Hale, p. 72. t Cicero, in Oratore, frngm. ap. Augustin T, 3 contra. Acad. c. 7. CIIARACTER OF THE GENTLE~lAN. 61 limits of the gentleman, if it be incumbent upon anyone in the wide range of civilized socicty. I pass over all this, as plainly ob­ vious j but I must mention to you, inexpe­ rienced as you are, that lawyers not unfre­ quelltly, here as well as in England, allow their zeal for the client or the l)rosecmtioll to make them visibly swerve from the path of the gentleman. However close and searching your examina­ tion of a witness may be, you are bound by all the laws of morality, by all the principles of high-mindedness, and by the meaning of the institution of the advocate itself, to behave as gentlemen towards him whom the laws of your society place for a time in an irksome situation and make dependent upon you. You are bound by all that is sacred and gentlemanly not to use those means and artifices towards a helpless and uneducated witness, which a wit­ ness of education and standing would quickly stop by an appeal to the bench. You are bound to follow the plain and direct dictatcs of an ingenuous man, in the simplicity of his heart, 62 CHARACTER OF TilE GENTLEMAN. and clearly to remember that the practice of every profession, be it that of the lawyer, the army, the church, the author, the physician, the navy, or any other, has a natural tendency to blunt or misdirect the feelings of its votaries in complicated cases of professional morality. A usage perhaps correct in the main is laid down in a sententious manncr, perhaps in Latin, and soon it becomes a cruel bed of Procrustes, while the professional hauteur makes deaf to all protests o~ the non-professional. Nearly all great reforms have begun with those who did not belong to the respective profession, or to the successful competitors in the respective hierarchy. Lord Brougham, when counsel of the ac­ cused queen of George IV., used this language: "An advocate, by the sacred duties which he owes his client, knows, in the discharge of that office, but one person in the world,-that client, and none other. To save that client by all expedient means, to protect that client at all hazards and cost to all others, and, among other things, to himself, is the highest and CHARACTER OF TilE GENTLE:'IIAN. 63 most unquestioned of his duties. He must not regard the alarm, the suffering, the tor­ ment, the destruction, which he may bring on any other." These words, logically considered, absurd, morally monstrous, psychologically interest­ ing,-for they show how far a mind of a very high order may err when in hot pursuit of a professional end,-will strike you, not yet hard­ ened by the peculiar ethics of a class or pro­ fession, as I have designated them j but, what is more, they have actually been repeated approvingly as an authority by professional writers.*

* They have also found their deserts. Mr. Kimball, quoting them in his" St. Leger, or The Threads of Life," says, "A more monstrous doctrine, I do not hesitate to say, was never broached. There is no such thing, there ougbt to be no such thing, as the morality of tbe advocate as distinguished from the morality of the man. The most that tbe advocate can assume, either in criminal or civil cases, is to be clothed with the rights and duties of his client. Tbat client bas no rigbt to fabricate, to prevaricate, or to falsify, for the sake of a defence; neither has the advocate a right to do it for him. The rationale of an advocate's labors is, thnt be is engaged in 6 (j'! CHARACTER OF TilE GENTLE;lIAN.

Let me give you another quotation, taken from a biography of the famous Mr. Curran. "It was the ohject almost with everyone to preoccupy so successful or so dangerous an advocate i for, if he failed in inducing a jury to sympathize with his client, he at all events left a picture of his adversary behind him which survived and embittered the advantages of victory. N or was his eloquence his only weapon: at cross-examination, the most diffi­ cult and by far the most hazardous part of a barrister's profession, he was quite inimitable. There was no l)lan which he did not detect, trying to find all the evidence of the truth on one siue, his opponent seeking similar evidence on the opposite, judge and jury putting two sides together in getting at the whole truth. "Falsehood is no elemen t of truth; and to pretend that an advocate is at the command (and for money) of a confessed felon or admitteu swinuler, is to take a vcry low position for the ba.r. For one, I have never seen any difficulty in this subject. I tlo not believe an advo­ cate has any right to say 01' do for his client what he would not say and do for himself; and, as he would not (if a true man) eithcr misstate or mystify, color or conceal, in his own behalf, how can he do these things in behalf of another?" CHARACTER OF THE GENTLE:lfAN. 65

no web which he did not disentangle j and the unfortunate wretch who commenced with all the confidence of preconcerted perjury, never failed to retreat before him in all the con­ fusion of exposure. Indeed, it was almost impossible for the guilty to offer a successful resistance. He argued, he cajoled, he ridi­ culed, he mimicked, he played off the various artillery of his talent upon the witness j he would affect earnestness upon trifles, and levity upon subjects of the most serious im­ port, until at length he succeeded in creating a security that was fatal, or a sullenness that produced all the consequences of prevarica­ tion. No matter how unfair the topic, he never failed to avail himself of it; acting upon the principle that, in law as well as in war, every stratagem was admissible. If he was bard pressed, there was no peculiarity of persoll, no singubrity of name, no eccen­ tricity of profeSSion, at which he would not grasp, trying to confound the self-possession of the witness by the no-matter-how-exeited ridicule of the audience. To a witness of the 66 CIlARACTER OF TIlE GENTLE)IAN. name of IIalfpenny he once began, 'Half­ penny, I sce you are a rap j and for that reason you shall be nailed to the countcr.' 'lIalf­ penny is sterling,' exclaimed the opposite counsel. ' No, no,' said he j 'he's exactly like his own conscicnce,-only copper-washed.' This phrase alluded to an expression pre­ viously used on the trial." And now I simply ask these questions ;­ Is this the picture of a gentleman and an upright man? When such practices were lauded and raised advocates into distinetion, no wonder that Dr. Arnold besought his bcst pupils not to select the profession of the bar, as most dangerous to an upright man and a gentleman. Where were the judges, to check such out­ rages and low practiccs,-to protect thc wit­ ness? If every stratagem is allowed in law as in war, and if with cqual right the mcrchant says, "A trick in tradc, &c. j" if the diploma­ tist considers cunning anu circumventing the essence of his trade j if thc politicians say, CIIARACTER OF TIlE OENTLE:\IAN. 67 and they have done so in print, "Every thing is allowed in politics j" if the officers of the army say, and they have done so in many countries, "The soldier has no honor excel)t absolute obedience to thc king j" if the priests say, and they have done so, that "for the greater glory of the Church," nothing must be conceded to the opponent, and every evil, even crimes, within the church, must be concealedj if political partisanship induces even divines publicly to defend a fearful outrage, because committed by political vengeancej if the zealot justifies"pious frauds j" if princes break their solemn oaths for" reasons of state," and others are applauded for throwing them to the winds, in order to obtain a crown, provided tbey are successful though it be with torrents of blood j if the pupil, acknowledging a lie to be dis­ honorable, still maintains it may be indulged in if proffered to a teacher j if citizens, other­ wise respectable, consider a eustom-bouse oath of no very binding power j if truth is jostled like an inconvenient guest out of the particular house of everyone, though acknowledged as 6" 68 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLE:IIAN. a most honorable visitor by everyone in gene­ ral, where shall it find an abiding-place? And if common truth and common honesty be thus driven from our doors, how can a gentlemanly conduet--and, still more, how can that holi­ ness which is the stamp of the Christian re­ ligion, marking it from all others-be honored without the deepest hypocrisy ?*

* In tbe first and second editions of this composition, I gave at this place the case of Courvoisier and the con­ duct of his counsel, who, as it was then universally under­ stood and remained for years uncontradicted by 1Ilr. Phil­ lips himself, bad the confession of the prisoner that he had murdered Lord William Russell, yet called on the Most High as a witness that he, counsel, believed the prisoner innocent, insinuated that a female fellow-servant of Courvoisier might have done the deed, cbal'gcd a respectable witness with perjury and with keeping a house of m repute, and called the police-officers, who detected his client, a pack of ruffians. The case excited the greatest attention, and produced a number of articles, reviews, and other writings. Mr. Townsend, in his "1Il0­ dern State Trials," defended 1\11'. Phillips, and gives his views on the duties of counsel. Both are unsatisfact{)ry and inconclusive. In the year 1849 the London Examiner returned to the charges against Mr. Phillips, and his friend :Mr. Samuel Warren begged him to take notice of the charges and to refuto them. 1\1r. Phillips then published CIIARACTER OF THE GENTLE:\fAN. 69

Let me not be misunderstood. I consider it every way necessary that an indicted pri­ a statement, for which I refer the American reader to the Appendix of "Professional Ethics," by George Shars­ wood, Philadelphia, 1855. The author gives on page 41 a number of publications on the subject; but the inquir­ ing reader ought, in addition, to read the London Ex­ aminer of November, 1849, or the London Spectator, 24th November and 1st December, 18·Hl. Tbis is not the place to investigate whether the odium has been wholly removed. !\Ir. Phillips's declaration that he had a most fearful night when the murderer, after confessing to him, sent him a message to the effect that he con­ sidered his life in Phillips's hands, seems somewhat sur­ prising. Courvoisier" had confided in him." Confided in him, of course, as legal counsel. But, even if not, am I bound by extraordinary scruples if a murderer, blood­ begrimed, rushes into my house, states his deed, and asks for shelter? I still think !\Ir. Phillips ought to have declined serving as counsel after the confession, for as a truthful man he could not do justice to his client, or else have closely limited himself to a watchful care that nothing but the law be adhered to. Nor does the invo­ cation of the Deity seem wholly to be removed, although it was not in the repulsive form as first charged. The London Spectator of 1st December, 1849, in an article headed Morals of the Bar, boldly says, "But the charge which has been made against Mr. Phillips is one that might in its material substance be made against th~ bar generally,-one that has been against it for years." Although the following extract is long, I givo it, from 70 CIIARACTER OF TIIE GENTLElIIAN. soner have his defender, that is, counsel learned in the law, who, however criminal or obviously the London Spectfttor of 19th April, 1851, because it is pertinent, and because such occurrences are not officially reported: "The opinions delivered by Mr. Baron Martin on the propel' function and responsibility of the bar, at a trial of the Central Criminal Court on Saturday, will probably have excellent effect in unventilated moral regions of the Old Bailey. John Moss, servant of Mr. George Brettle, was indicted for stealing from his master a telescope, clothing, and other articles of personal property, worth ]OOl. Mr. Brettle is a partner of the eminent city firm bearing his name: as a bachelor he lived in the Albany; he lately married; and on leaving the Albany he dis­ covered how his valet had plundered him. For the de­ fence, Mr. Mew held the brief of some friend who had been retained; and he endeavored by cross-examination of Mr. Brettle (0 elicit some facts of a personal and private nature, on which the inference might. be founded that the property had been given to Moss to procure his silence. Allusion was made to a lady with whom Mr. Brettle had intimate relations before his marriage, but who is now dead; and a demand was made for inspection of Mr. Brettle's check-book. After much persisting, however, it seemed that the defence consisted solely of innuendo; nothing was elicited to justify the insinuations; and the jury observed, aloud, that the questions had nothing to do with the merits of Moss's defence. Baron Martin remarked that he had long entertained the same opinion, but h.e apd the jury must give the counsel credit CIIARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 71 convicted his client may stand at the bar of justice, shall still watch that the prisoner re- for having some proper object in view; his wa~ the re­ sponsibility, and if in his discretion he thought fit to persevere, the court conld not prevent him. Mr. Mew stated that he was acting strictly from his instructions; and he averred that it was important these qnestions should be answered. "The foreman of the jury (with warmth).-

positively grant or not positively withhold. In order to obtain this important end, it is neccssary that every advocate considcr him­ sclf pledgcd to grant his services to whomso­ ever may apply for them. The" custom" of the English bar, settled by rcpeated decisions of the bar itself, is to accept any rctainer as it comes. It is considered" ungentlemanly" not to do it, unless there be particular and urgent reasons for declining, such as abhor- a grocer at Brixton who kept a receiving-house, was convicted of stealing a post letter containing a check for 16l. The check was cashed on the afternoon on which it was posted; and the prisoner paid away two five-pound notes which were given by the bankers in chrmge for the check. The attempt at defence, by Mr. Ballantine, was rather remarkable. lIe insinuated that the letter might have been stolen by the man who carried the leUer-bag from Brixton to London,-a very improbable suggestion, as no explanation was attempted of the manner in which one at least of the notes came into Harrison's possession the same evening; nor was any evidence offered agaiust the letter-carrier. Both Mr. Baron Alderson and Mr. Justice Coleridge checked the counsel in his reckless course; and on the second interference of the bench, illr. Ballantine desisted from his charge against the letter-carrier. The sentence was two years' imprison­ ment. 7-! CIIARACTER OF TIIE GENTl,EMAN. rencc of the very principle to be established. It happened in Erskine's life that he was re­ tained for "the First Regiment of Guards j" but it was found that thc " First Regiment of Guard.s" is no legal pcrson that can appear in court. It becamc necessary, thercfore, to drop thc name of the First Regiment of Guards and. to substitute the names of indivi­ dual officcrs. Thc attorney of the opposite party sent at once his retainer to Erskine j for he was no longer retained by the regi­ ment, and not yet again retained by the per­ sons substituted for it j and, however distaste­ fLll to the great advocate this particular case happencd to be, he declared-and it is tho general opinion in England-that it is one of the most important Tights of the subject, that every advocate must allow himself to be re­ tained, so long as he is not retained by the opposite side. If an advocate happen to know the foulness of a transaction which he is called upon to defend, he must decline j but, in doing so, tho utmost circumspection and a very high degree CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 75 of conviction are requisite j for he must not forget that by his declining he in a degree prejudges a case still to be tried. It is in this scnse, I believe, that we must understand the words of Tronchet, the counsel of Louis XV!., when at the bar of the Convention. Tronchet said, "Every man thus publicly called upon to defend an accused person cannot decline his services without taking upon himself the responsibility of l)ronouncing a judgment,­ precipitate [his word is temeraire] before the ex­ amination of the case, and barbarous after it." There is no fairer occurrence in our Re­ volution than the defence of thc British sol­ diers who had killed and wounded a number of citizens at the tumult in Boston, on the 5th Qf March, 1770. Their bold defenders at the bar of justice were John Adams and Mr. Quincy, both young and ardent patriots, and for that reason implored by the father of the latter not to defend" murderers." They simply answered that tho soldiers had not yet been triedj and in doing so they may have shown more oourage than Socrates did when 7 76 CHARACTER OF TilE GENTLE1I1AN. he defended Theramenes j for it requires greater resolution to face the indignation of your fellow-patriots or of your own family than to brave the power of hated tyrants. It was noble when M. de Martignae, dis­ missed from the ministry by Prince Polignac, nevertheless defended the latter after the revolution of 1830, because called upon to do so by Polignac, when arraigned before the peers. All this is as it ought to be j but the advocate is not therefore absolved from moral obligations, as the barrister in the case alluded to must have presumed.* If advocates were the only persons all earth who stand absolved from the obligations of truth, morality, aud justice, society would have placed itself under a very absurd despotism, and their whole order ought speedily to be abolished. It is, on the contrary, a fact that the institution of the advocate exists every­ where along with civil liberty, and is indis­

* The case alluded to is the one I have now sup­ pressed. CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 77 pensable to it:* therefore, let them be gentle­ m en. The prosecuting officer, on the other hand,

·le I h(Lve dwelt on this subject more at length in the chapters on the Judge, Jury, and Advocate in "Political Ethics." The enemies of civil liberty know well the im­ portance of the institution of the advocate for civil liberty. Archbishop Laud and Earl Strafford show, in their corre­ spondence, the most inveterate hatred against l(Lwyers, without whom, they confess to each other, it would be easy to establish the king's "absolute" sovereignty, their adored idol; and Duclos (page 335, vol. 76, of Collect. des Memoires, second series) says that the foreign minis­ ters applauded, in the name of their masters, the regent, Duke of Orleans, for having repressed ces Ugistes (in 1718), that is, having incarcerated three presidents of the Parliament. Laud and Strafford, however, ought not to have forgotten those lawyers who, as Audley, successor to Sir Thomas More, urged it as a claim to promotion, "had willingly incurred all manner of infamy to serve the government." Previous to my writing the" Character of the Gentle­ man," I had dwelt on the duties of the advocate in my "Political Ethics" and in my "Legal and Political IIer­ meneutics." Since then I have endeavored clearly to fix the position of the lawyer in the great polities of modern free nations and to ascertain the boundaries of their pri­ vileges derived from it, in my "Civil Libertyanc] Self­ Government," where I speak of the high position of the advocate as one of the guarantees of our Anglican liberty. 78 CIIARACTER OF THE GENTLE~IAN. must not forget that the indicted person is placed in his power, which he may abuse seriously, scandalously, and in an ungentle­ manly manner, as history most amply shows; that the prisoner is yet to be tried; that the object of the trial is justice, not to oppress, worry, or hunt down the prisoner, or to as­ perse his character so foully that, though he may be acquitted, his reputation may be ruined for life, and that too, perhaps, merely by insi­ nuations. In the course of your studies you will find instances of what I say in Sir Ed­ ward Coke and in Bacon,-him who would never have been so deplorably wrecked that he saved little more than immortal fame of intellect, had he felt likc a gentleman instead of cringing before a James and fawning upon a Buckingham, being ready for their least commendable work. Baconwas, unfortunately, void of dignity and honor.* Earl Strafford

-jC. With sadness, indeed, we find a new and appalling confirmation of Pope's" greatest, meanest of mankind," in the lately renewed inquiry into the trial of the Count­ ess of Somerset for the murder of Over bury :-"The Great CHARACTER OF TIlE GENTLEi\lAN. 79 said, after his trial for high treason, " Glynne and Maynard have used me like advocates, but Palmer and Whitelock like gentlemen, and yet left out nothing that was material to be urged against me." Does not everyone understand at once what ho meant? And do not my hearors feel that Strafford himself, in uttering these words, felt that fairness and liberality of judgment which is "becoming a gentle­ man"? It seems to me that the opening speech of 111'. Clifford, Attorney-General of Massachu­ setts, on the trial of Professor Webster for the murder of Dr. Parkman, in 1850, was a

Oyer of Poisolling: the Trial of the Earl of Somerset for the Poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury, &c." By Andrew Amos. London, 1846. Since the preceding lines of this note were written, two works have made tbeir appearance,-Mr. Spedding's edition of Bacon's Works, and 1111'. Hepworth Dixon's "Personal History of Lord Bacon, from Unpublished Papers,"-both considered by many persons, it would seem, as presenting Bacon in such a ligbt that, as the latter author says, "The lie, it may be hoped, is about to pass away." Every gentleman will rejoice if by these efforts Bacon's memory shall be again rehabilitated among that of gentlemen; but I doubt whether tbe attempt Las been, so far, successful. 7"... 80 CHARACTER OF TllE GENTLE:)lAN. model of good sense and propriety in this respect. Do not believe that you will lastingly pro­ mote even your worldly interests as lawyers by any infraction of the strictest rules of a gentlemanly conduct. Every advocate of ex­ perience, I venture to say, will tell you that a fairly established reputation as gentlemen will be an efficient agent in promoting your career as advocates. Is it necessary to dwell on the disastrous consequences to the law, justice, and security of the citizen, to liberty and truth, when the judge, that eminently essential, high, and peculiar functionary in our civil systems, swerves from the path of a high-minded gen­ tleman? Is it necessary to recall to your memory the conduct of the Stuart judges, " ruffians in ermine" ? Is it necessary to point out that in some respeet~ the judge has far greater discretionary power in our system, and must have it, than in many other govern­ ments, because he must be independent, and CHARACTER OF TIlE GEN'fLEMAN. 81 that for this reason he must, in the spirit of a gentleman, self-limit this power? The healing art stands no less ' in need of being practised by gentlemen than the law. In no profession is a constant acting upon the strictest principles of gentlemanliness more indispensable in a general point of view, as well as with especial reference to professional success, than in the practice of medicine and surgery. We know, indeed, that there have been physicians of eminence who havc signal­ ized themselves alike by professional skill and commensurate success on the one hand, and offcnsive bluntness on the other j but we know, too, that, instead of following out their noble mission of alleviating suffering in all its details, thcy have wantonly added to the aftliction of their patients, and that the very highest degree of skill and knowledge was requisite to counterbalance the evil conse­ quences of their ungentlemanly manners. I speak of manners only; for if the physician be void of the principles of the gentleman his ruin must be the inevitable consequence. 82 CilARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN.

The aim of the healing art is to cure or aUe­ yiate human suffering in this life, in which it is the lot of man to suffer much,-to heal, as the name impoTts; and. the medical adviser efficiently aids his purely therapeutic efforts by soothing the heart of the patient and by comforting the anxious souls of those who watch the sick-bed in distress and gloom. I do not know that man can appear in a brighter phase than as a physician, full ofknowledge and skill, calm, careful, bold, and with the soothing adjuncts of gentlemanly blandness. The phy­ sician, moreover, must needs be admitted, not only into the recess of the sick-chamber, but very frequently into the recesses ofhis patient's heart, and into the sanctuary of domestic life with its virtues and its failings and frailties. If he do not carry with him the standard of the purest honor; if he take the slightest advantage of his position; if he fail to keep what he sees and hears buried in secrecy as inviolable as that of the confessor j if he ex­ pose what must be revealed to him,-he faUs from his high station, and becomes an affiict­ CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 83 ing injurer and sower of evil instead of a comforter, allaying pain and stilling sorrow where he can. The effect of a gentlemanly spirit and consequent manners is even great in that branch of the healing art in which you may least expect it,-in surgery. I have passed months in hospitals, and have had ample opportunity to observe the different effects produced upon the patients, though soldiers and sailors they were, during serious operations, even the amputation of .limbs, by kindly, gentlemanly surgeons, and by those who chilled their victim's heart with gruff words or handled him with hasty and mechanic hands. Row gratefully do the poverty-stricken remember a kind word of the physician under whose care they have been in the hospital! Row lasting an impression of horror does the harshness of those physicians produce who make the patient bitterly feel his poverty in wealth and friends, in addition to his bodily pain and an aching heart! Some of you, no doubt, will becoine editors of newspapers. The journal has become a 84 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. prominent agent of modern civilization, and the editor holds great power in comparison with his fellow-citizens. He daily speaks to many j he can reiterate j he is aided by the greater weight which, however unfounded the opinion may be, is attached by the minds of almost all men to every thing printed, over that which is merely spoken j and he is sure that the contradiction of what he states will not run precisely in the same channels through which the first assertion was conveyed. All this, and the consideration that the daily re­ peated tone in which a paper publishes or discusses the many occurrences of the day produces a sure effect upon the general tone of the community, ought to warn an editor that if the obligations of a gentleman are binding upon anyone, they are indubitably so upon him. Thc evil influence which some papers in our country, very active but very ungentlemanly in their tonc and spirit, have already exercised upon our community, cannot be denied. Let me in addition point out one especial application of the general duty of CHARACTER OF TilE GENTLEMAN 85 editors always to conduct their papers as gentlemen: I mean the abstaining from un­ authorized publication of private letters, con­ fidential conversations, and, in general, from any exposure of strictly private affairs. The publishing of private letters, indelicately au­ thorized by those to whom they are addressed, is a failing of more frequent occurrence in this than in any other country; and no gentle­ manly editor will give his aid in thus con­ founding public and private life, deteriorating public taste and trespassing upon a sacred right of others, as clearly pronounced and protected by positive law, as it obviously flows from the nature of the case,-the distinct rule that the writer's consent is necessary for a lawful publication of letters.* It was neces­

;<. There is an interesting account of the decisions and the law, as it now stands in England, on "the Copyright of Private Letters," appended by the Bishop of Llandaff to the" Letters of the Earl of Dudley," new edition, Lon­ don, 1841. For the general reader it may be stated here that he will find in Lord Campbell's" Lives of the Lord Chancellors," vol. v. p. 54, Life of Lord Hardwicke, the first case, Pope v. Curte, in which it was settled that the 86 CHARACTER OF TilE GENTLE~IAN. sary to mention this palpable infraction of a gentlemanly conduct j but it is so obvious a deviation from the regard which one gentle­ man owes to another, that, once being men­ tioned, I hold it to be unnecessary to say any thing more about it. That the universal obligation of veracity is emphatically binding upon the editor, is evi­ dent, but it does not belong exclusively to tho subjeot of gentlemanly conduct. The obliga­ tion of truthfulness is as general, and as neces­ sary for the individual and society, as the requisite of light is for the life of nature. Officers of the army and the navy are everywhere expected to conduct themselves as gentlemen towards one another, and ought to be gentlemen in the truest sense of the term towards everyone out of the army and navy, man or woman, lady or seamstress, as well as towards the men under their com­ mand. The practice of the high attribute of writer of a letter retains his copyright in it,-in other words, that it cannot lawfully be published without his consent. CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 87 the gentleman, that he allows his subordinates or the weak to feel his power as little as is consistent with duty, is not only elevating to the officer, but, in a point of common expe­ diency, highly profitable. Soldiers and sailors, like all other human beings, honor, and, when the trial comes, cling to, the man who has habitually treated them in a gentlemanly way. There was a time-not even half a century ago -when in all armies except the French it was believed that caning and flogging were the best means of discipline. Prussia, soon after her defeat in the year 1806, profiting by the example of her victors, abolished the dis­ graceful stick,-though not without the loudest protests of the" conservatives,"-and rapidly raised the army punishments from the inflic­ tion of mere physical pains, more and more to those that appeal to bonor and morality, the king declaring, each time a change was made, by royal decree, that the last improve­ ment of the military punisbment had so far improved the spirit of the army tbat a further improvement was admissible j until 8 88 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLE~lAN. at last punishment in that army may be said to have become wholly unbrutalized. England has not followed this marked improvement of our race as much as is desired by many, because, as the Duke of Wellington publicly declared, the Eritish army is composed of enlisted men, often the scum of society j but before Sebasto­ pol the Eritish officers were ashamed of the cat-o' -nine-tails in presence of the French j and Admiral Collingwood, called the strictest dis­ ciplinarian of the navy, never ceased to pro­ test against flogging in the navy, during his whole protracted command of the Mediterra­ nean :fleet in the times of N apoleon.* I know nothing individual of the officer who as quietly as on parade went down with his soldiers un­ der arms in rank and TIle, in the Birkenhead j but I conclude he must have habitually treated his men like a gentleman. Such command over men at such an hour requires more than a commission.

* See "Public and Private Correspondence of the Vice-Admiral Collingwood, with Memoirs of his Life." Third edition. London, 1828. CIIARACTER OF THE GENTLElIIAN. 89

The character of the gentleman in the sphere of political action, or in all that can be called public life, is one of far the most important topics belonging to our subject. If entire instructive books have been written on the citizen, it would be neither an unprofitable nor an ungrateful task to write an entire volume on the character of the gentleman as citizen. I shall merely mention some points. The greater the liberty is which we enjoy in any sphere of lifc, the more binding, neces­ sarily, becomes the obligation of self-restraint, and, consequently, the more important become all the rules of action which flow from our reverence for the pure character of the gentle­ man,-an importance which is enhanced in the present period ofour country, because one ofits striking features, if I mistake not, is an intense and general attention to rights without a paral­ lel and proportionately clear perception of cor­ responding obligations. But right and obliga­ tion are twins: they are like the binary flames of Castor and Pollux, which the sailors of the Mediterranean consider as a sure sign of fair 90 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. weather and prosperous winds; but if one alone is seen illumining the yard's end, the mariner fears foul weather and danger. Right and obligation are each other's complements, and cannot be severed without undermining the ethical ground on which we stand,-that ground on which alone civilization, justice, virtue, and real progress can build enduring monuments. Right and obligation are the warp and the woof of the tissue of man's moral, and therefore, likewise, of man's civil life. Take out the one, and the other is in worthless confusion. We must return to this momentous principle, the first of all moral government, and, as fairness and calmness are two prominent ingredients in the character of the gentleman, it is plain that this reform must be materially promoted by a general diffusion of a sincere regard for that cha­ racter. Liberty, which is the enjoyment of unfettered action, necessarily leads to licen­ tiousness, without an increased binding power within j for liberty offers to man, indeed, a free choice of action, but it cannot absolve CIIARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 91

him from the duty of choosing what is right, fair, liberal, urbane, and handsome. ,Vhere there is freedom of action, no matter in what region or what class of men, there always have been, and must be, parties, whe­ ther they be called party, school, sect, or " fac­ tion."* These will often act the one against the other; but, as a matter of course, they are not allowed to dispense with any of the principles of morality. The principle that every thing is permitted in politics is so shame­ less, and ruinous to all, that I need not dwell upon it here. But there are a great many acts, as has been stated before, which, though it may not be possible to prove them "Tong according to the strict laws of ethics, never­ theless appear at once as unfair, not strictly honorable, ungentlemanlike j and it is of the utmost importance to the essential prosperity of a free country that these acts should not be resorted to; that in the minor or higher

* In the conclave the cardinals used to divide into Spanish, French, &c. factions, i.e. parties; possihly they do so still. 8'" 92 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLE;lIAX. assemblies and in all party struggles, even the intensest, we ought never to abandon the standard of the gentleman. It is all-import­ ant that parties keep in "good humOl'," as Lord Clarendon said of the whole country. One deviation from fairness, candor, decorum, and "fu,ir play" begets others and worse in the opponent, and from the kindliest difference of opinion to the fiercest struggle of factions, sword in hand, is but one unbroken gradual descent, however great the distance may bej while few things are surer to forestall or arrest this degeneracy than a common and hearty esteem of the character of the gentleman. We have ill our country a noble example of calmness, truthfulness, dignity, fairness, and urbanity,-constituents ofthe character which we are considering,-in the father of our coun­ try j for Washington, the wise and steadfast patriot, was also the high-minded gentleman. When the malcontent officers of his army in­ formed him that they would lend him their support if he were willing to build himself a throne, he knew how to blend the dictates of CIIARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 93 his oath to the commonwealth, and of his patriotic heart, with those of a gentlemanly feeling towards the deluded and irritated. In tbe sense in which we take the term here, it is not the least of his honors that, through all the trying periods and scenes of his remark­ able life, the historian and moralist can write him down, not only as Washington the Wise, not only as Washington the Pure and Single­ minded, not only as Washington the Perse­ vering and Tenacious, but also as Washington the Gentleman. If in a country of varied, quick, and ardent political action and manifold excitement, in which changes and new combinations must often take place, the standard of the high-bred gentleman is abandoned, the effect is as bane­ ful as that of a prying and falsifying secret police in despotic governments. lfr. Ranke relates, in his" History of the Popes," that the utmost caution of el1ch toward everyone pre­ vailed in Rome, because no one knew how he might stand with his best friend in a year's time. The same destruction of confidence and 94 CHA-1UCIEE OF THE GL-TLElL\.X. mutual reliance must "pread o~er the land where freedom rei"n- but a gentlemanly cha­ racter doe not at the same time pre~aiL Lord haftesbury, the brilliant. energetic. and reck­ less Alcibiade- of English hi~tory: rigidly ob­ serred the rule: during all hi terrri~er:,ations,

<; that he ne~er betrayed the secret- of a party he had left, or made har"h personal ob6erra­ tion on the conduct of his old friends.-not only trying to keep up a familiar pri~ate in­ tercourse with them, but ab_taining from ~in­ dicti~e reflection upon them in hi peeches or his writings.'·* Thi obser~ance and his Habeas Corpus Act go far with u in redeem­ ing the character of thi profligate and un­ principled statesman. If you wi-h to see the disa trous effects of a general de-truction of confidence and mutual reliance, you must

* Lord Campbell's" Lives of the Chancellors," '\'ol. iii. p. 290. I am aware that Sir Samuel Romilly took a somewhat clifferent view of the blending of private in­ tercourse with political opposition, as appears from his " Life and Correspondence" by his son; but I belie'\'e (he difference is more seeming tha.1l real, to judge him by his own life. CHA.RACTER OF THE GENTLE:UAN. 95 study Spanish history; for I believe that the worst effect of the Inquisition has been the total change of the Spanish national cha­ racter. Even dukes became spies, and that once noble nation was filled with truculent suspicion, in the dark shades of which the character of the gentleman cannot prosper. I must not omit making mention at least of the importance of a gentlemanly spirit in all international transactions with sister nations of our race,-and even with tribes which follow different standards of conduct and mo­ rality. Nothing seems to me to show more undeniably the real progress which human society has made, than the general purity of judges,* together with the improvement of the

* I have lived for long periods in Italy, Germany, France, England, and the United States, and never heard, in the four last-mentioned countries, of a judge suspected of bribery. Yet only a short period has elapsed since satire and comedy teemed with the standing subjects of bribed judges, criminal advocates, and irksome wcdlock; and Lord Campbell, in the work cited in the preceding note, says, "England, during t.he Stuart reigns, was cursed by a succession of ruffians in ermine, who, for the sake of court-favor, violated the principles of !:It> CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. whOle administration of justice, so far at least as the leading nations are concerned, and the vastly improved morals of modern interna­ tional intcrcourse, holding diplomatic fraud and international trickery, bullying, and pet­ tifogging, as no less unwise than immoral. History, and that of our own times especially, teaches us that nowhere is thc vaporing brag­ gart more out of place, and the true gen­ tleman morc in his proper sphere, than in conducting international affairs. Fairness on the one hand, and collected self-respect on the other, will frequently make matters easy, where swaggering taunt, or reckless conceit and insulting folly, may lead to the serious misunderstanding of entire nations, and a san­ guinary end. The firm and dignified carriage of our Senate, and thc absence of petty pas­ sion or vain-gloriousness in the British Par­ liament, have brought the Oregon question to a fair and satisfactory end,-an affair which but a short time ago was believed by many

1:1W, the precepts of religion, and the dictates of hu­ manity." CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 97 to be involved in difficulties which the sword alone was able to cut short. Even genuine personal urbanity in those to whom interna­ tional affairs are intrusted is very frequently of great importance for a happy ultimate good understanding between the mightiest nations. We may express a similar opinion with re­ ference to war. Nothing mitigates so much its hardships, and few things depending upon individuals aid more in preparing a welcome peace, than a gentlemanly spirit in the com­ manders, officers, and, indeed, in all the com­ batants, towards their enemies, whenever an opportunity offers itself. Instead of numerous instances that might be given, I may add that the mention of the names of Prince Eugene and of the Duke of Marlborough ought never to be omitted when the progress of civilization in connection with this or similar subjects is under discussion. It was these two captains that treated their captives of war in such a manner that soon a great improvement in the treating of prisoners of war was effected all 98 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. round, became a portion of the modern law of war, and forms now one of the character­ istics of our civilization.* I must add, as a fact worthy of notice, that political assassination, especially in times of war, was not looked upon in antiquity as in­

* A gentlemanly spirit, of which dignified self-respecrt and equally dignified forbearance, as well as truthful­ ness, are essential elements, is the basis of a large por­ tion of the modern law of nations, in peace as well as war. The law of nations is the result of the principle of self-government applied to the intercourse of many great nations existing at one and the same time, drawing abreast, like Olympi(l chariot-horses, the car of civiliza­ tion,-that great fact in history which constitutes the very opposite to the obsolete idea of a universal mon­ archy, once more recommended in our times from that quarter which is vindicated as the concentration of all civilization. The law of nations requires, before all other things, that nations treat and respect one another as equals; and if I had ever doubted that a gentlemanly conduct, even towards the enemy, is an essential element of that branch of the law of nations which is called the law and usages of war, it would have most clearly pre­ sented itself to my mind when I was drawing up the code of "Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field," which, revised by proper authority, has been promulgated by the President of the United States. CHARACTER OF TIlE GENTLEMAN. 99

admissible; that Sir Thomas More mentions the assassination of the hostile capt:1in as a -n'ise mcasurc rcsorted to by his Utopians; that Queen Elizabeth callcd Sir Amyas Paulet "a, dainty fellow," bccause he was unwilling to lcnd a hand in ridding her of the captive :Mary Qucen of Scots, and Cardinal Retz quictly weighed thc expediency of murdering Cardinal Mazarin, his successful rival in the civil broils of France; that Charles II. pro­ mised, by proclamation, a high reward and civil elevation to whomsocver would poison or otherwisc dcstroy" that mechanic fellow Crom­ 'well;" that the Commonwealth-men in exilc ,,\yerc picked off by assassination; while Charles Fox, during the war with the French, arrested the man who offered to assassinate Napoleon, informed the French Government of the fact, and sent the man out of the country;* and Admiral Lord St. Vincent, the stern enemy of the French, directed his secretary to write the following answer to a similar offer made by a

* Pell's "Life of Charles James Fox," p. 592. 9 100 CHARACTER OF 711E GENTLK)IAN.

French emigrant: ".Lord St. Vincent has not 'Tords to express the detestation in which he holds an assasin."* Fox and Vincent acted like Ohristians and gentlemen.t

* Tucker, "l\Iemoirs of Admiral the Earl St.Vincent," vol. i. p. 203 . t Death, as a means of action in politics, be it the death of dangerous individuals or death on a large scale, RS the French used it in the first Revolution, which led in turn to the abolition of capital punishment for" political offences" by the Provisional Government in 1848, must be treated of in political philosophy and political ethics. But assassinations of individuals, as of Henry IV., may be mentioned here. Sand, the murderer of Kotzebue, and Stapss, who, eighteen years old, attempted to kill Napoleon at Schoenbrunn (see the Memoires du Gcncrn.l Rapp, Paris, 1823, p. 112 et seqq.), were enthusiastic youths misled by the contemplation of the wrongs in­ flicted. on their outraged country. Two years after the publication of the second edition of tllis essay, a foreign paper published in the United. States contained an advertisement of fourteen lines, offering five hundred dollars reward for the murder of a certain civil officer in Baden, and spoke of a Society for the Extirpation of German Princes. The absurdity of this monstrous advertisement would mu.ke it ludicrous, did such depravity, even were it nothing worse than depravity of taste, leave room for laughter. ' Yhilc these pages are retouching, the papers give us an account of tho trial of those Italians at Paris who were CIIARACl'ER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 101

I h:we mentioned some cheering charac­ teristics of our period, showing an essential progress iu our race. I ought to add a third, -namely, the more gentlemanly spirit which pervades modern penal laws. I am well aware that the whole system of punition has greatly improved, because men have made l)enology a subjeet of serious reflection, and the utter fallacy of many principles in which our forefathers seriously believed has at length been exposed. But it is at the same time impossible to study the history of penal law without clearly perceiving that punishments were formerly dictated by a vindictive ferocity, -an ungentlemanly spirit of oppression. All nccused of having allowed themselves to be tempted by a couple of hundred dollars, furnished by Mazzini, to assassinate the Emperor of the French. Little reliance, however, can be placcd on a French state trial of this sort, defying as it does the commonest rules of legal investigation, and conducted by a government which placed itself over France by breaking all oaths and by sbedding streams of blood. Absolute governments, newly established, often stand in need of conspiracies, to frigbten the people and tighten the reins still mor e conveniently. 102 CHARACTER OF TIlE GE"TLE}IAN. the aecumulated atrocities heaped upon tho criminal, and not unfrequently upon his inno­ cent kin, mel'ely because he was what now would be gently called "in the opposition," make us almost hear the enraged punisher vulgarly utter, "Now I have you, and you shall see how I'll manage you." Arch bishop Laud-essentially not a gentleman, but a vindictive l)ersecutor of everyone who dared to differ from his coarse views of State and Church-presided in the Star-Chamber and animated its members when Lord Keeper Coventry IJronounced the following sentence on Dr. Alexander Leighton, a Scottish divine, for slandering prelacy: "That the defendant should be imprisoned in the Fleet during life, should be fined ten thousand pounds, and, after being degraded from holy orders by the high commissioners, should be set in the pil­ lory inWestminster,-therc be whipped,-after being whipped, again be set in the pillory,­ have one of his ears cut ofi',-have his nose slit,-be branded in the face with a double S. S., for a Sower of Sedition,-ll,fterwards be CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 103 set in the pillory in Cheapside, and there be whipped, and, after being whipped, again be set in the pillory and have his other ear cut off." The whole council agreed. There was no recommendation for pardon or mitigation. The sentence was inflicted. Could a gentle­ mall have proposed or voted for so brutal an accumulation of pai:n, insult, mutilation, and ruin, no matter what the fundamental errors prevailing in penal law then were ? Nor havo I selected this from other sentences for its peculiar cruelty. Every student of history knows that they w'ere common at the time against all 'who offended authority even un­ knowingly. StubbR, a didne in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was sentenced to have his right hand cut off, because, when the marriage of the queen with a French prince was discuss­ ing, he had ventured to express, in a pamphlet, his fears of the danger to whieh the queen would expose herself in possible child-bed, Oll account of her age. She was then between forty and fifty. Yet, when the executioner had senred his right hand, he waved his hat 9* 104 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEi)IA.N. with the remaining left, and exclaimed, "Long live the queen!" Compare the spirit which could oven,helm a victim with such brutality, and the branding, pillory, and whipping still existing in some countries, with the spirit of cal mne s, kindness, yet seriousness and dignity, 'which peryades a punitory scheme such as the Pennsylvania eremitic penitentiary system, which, for the very reason that it is gentle­ manly, is the most impressive and penetrating, and therefore the most forbidding, of all. Let me barely allude to the duties of the gentleman in those countries in 'which sla,ery still exists. Plato says,* genuine humanity and real probity arc brought to the test by the behavior of a man to slaves, whom he may wrong with impunity. lIe speaks like a gen­ tleman. Although his golden rule applies to all persons 'whom we may offend or grieve with impunity, and although the fair and reluctant use of every power which we may possess o,er others is one of the truest tests of the gentle­

* De Legibu~, lib. vi. edit. Bipont. viii. 203. CHARACTER OF THE GENTLE)IAX. 103 man, yet it is natural that Plato should have made the treatment of the slave the peculiar test, because slavery gives the greatest po·wer. Cicero says we should not usc slaves otherwise than "we do our day-laborers.* I haye just stated that the forbearing use ofpo,Yer is a sure attribute of the true gentleman j indeed, we may say that power, physical, moral, purely social or political, is one of the touchstoncs of genuine gentlemanliness. The power which the husband has over his wife, in which must be included the impunity with which he may be simply unkind to her j that of the father over bis children j the teacher over bis pupils j the old over the young, and the young oyer the aged j the strong over the weak j the officer over his men j the master of a yessel over his hands j the magistrate over the citizen j the employer oyer the employed j the rich over the poor j the educated oyer the unlettered j the experienced over the confiding j the kceper of a secret over him whom it concerns j the gifted

* De Officiis, xiii. 106 CIIARACTER OF TIlE GENTLE~lAN. over the ordinary man j even the elever over the silly,-the forbearing and inoffensive use of all this power or authority, or a total absti­ nence from it, where the case admits of it, will show the gentleman in a plain light. Every traveller knows at once whether a gentle­ manly or a rude officer is searching his trunk. But the use of power is not the only touch­ stonc: evcn the manner in which an indi­ vidual enjoys certain adyantages over others is a test. No gentleman will boast of the delights of superior health in prescnce of a languid patient, or sl)eak of great good luck when in hearing of a man bent by habitual misfortune. Let a man who happily enjoys the advantages of a pure and honest life speak of it to a fallen, criminal fellow-being, and it will soon be seen whether he be, in addi­ tion to his honesty, a gentleman or not. The gentleman does not necdlessly and unceasingly remind an offender of a wrong he may have committed against him. lIe can not only forgive, he can forget j and he strives for that nobleness of soul and manliness of character CHARACTER OF THE GE:\'TLE)IAX. 107

which impart sufficient strength to let the past be truly past. He will never usc the poY\-er which thc knowledge of an offence, a false step, or an unfortunate exposure of weak­ ness give him, mercly to enjoy thc act of humiliating his neighbor. A true man of honor feels luunuled himself when he cannot help humbling othcrs. The subject which I have chosen covers so extensive a ground that it is difficult to break off, or to trcat of all the most important points. Give me lcave, then, to refer to but one more subject of practical importance, be­ fore I shall address to you my concluding remarks. It is the subject of deriding others, so natural to untutored minds, yet so incon­ sistent with a truly gentlemanly spirit, because so painful, and generally so uncleservedly pain­ ful, to those who are the objects of our deriding I:lmiles. A little reflection will show you that they arc not in harmony with that genuine good nature, and still less conformable to that refinement of feeling, which characterize the gentleman. Perhaps it will appear that he lOS CIlARACTER OF TIlE GENTLE;\IAN. who l:wghs at others shows that he deserves our pity more than the person laughed at. The Koran says, "Do not moek thy neighbor: the mocked may be better than the mocker." There is no subject in the whole provinee of psyehology which offers greater difficulties to the philosopher, possibly none that offers diffi­ culties so great, as that of laughing and the ridieulous. You will find that we feel tempted to smile, sometimes, even when our soul is filled with horror. There is always something risible in the Blue Beards, and, strange to say, the highest degree of horror frequently causes phy­ sical convulsive laughter.* We ought, then, to take care not to be betrayed into an act so little understood, when done at the cosi of another,

* We are here reminded even of the sardonic smile. Laughter, so distinguishing a feature of man, and so closely interwoven with literature, with civilization, and with ethnography, for some races are more cachinnatory than othcrs,-the negroes and Indians occupying appa­ rently the two ends of the scalc,-laughtcr, I say, seems nevertheless unexplained, even more so than disgust, that "mystic union between imagination and the stomach." I know of no profound physiology of laughter, not even of a sound chapter on this remarkable subject. CIIARACTEb: OF TIlE GENTLE)IAN. 109

who may feel pained or humbled by our inad­ vertence. ,Ve may further say that every thing novel, which does not at once strike us as grand, sublime, or awfL1I, inclines us first of all to smile. The advanced state of my addrcss prevcnts me from giving you instances. You can easily, however, provide them for your­ selves. But, if the fact is as I have stated, you will readily see that the smiling, caused by every thing novel, betrays as often our own ignorance as a fair cause of risibility. You ought, moreover, to remember that every human action perceptible by the senses, and which strikes us at all, causes us to laugh, if we are unacquainted with its antecedents, or if we see it out of conneeLion, unlcss an experienced mind and vivid imagination quickly supply the antecedents, or a well­ trained mind abstain from laughing at others, or at striking objects, as a general rule. Hcre, again, the ridiculous is not inhercnt in the phe­ nomenon, but is owing to him who laughs. To Bee, but not to hear, persons singing, is to all untutored minds ridiculous. Suddenly to find 110 CilARACTER OF TilE GE~TLE~[A~. a man vehemently speaking anu gesticulating strikes us as laughable j while, had we been present from the beginning, he might thrill our souls by those very tones anu gestures. Even marks of the tenderest affection fare no better in this respect j and what is more com­ mon than the laughing of the uneducated at the accent ofthose who, nevertheless, may have used great diligence and study to make them­ selves well understood in an idiom, all the diffi­ culties of which thcy arc not able to overcome, because they have not learned it on their fathers' knees or kissed it from -their mothers' blessing lips, and most willingly would speak to you, did it depend upon them, without any of those deviations at which you may smile? We frequently laugh at acts of our neighbors. Did we know all the antecedents, their whole education, their checkered lives, we should probably find nothing to smile at, and at times these "Very acts might make us weep instead. It is a rule, therefore, of m11ch practical importance for the gentlcman, never to laugh at others unless their pretensions de­ CHARACTER OF THE OENTLE:\IAN. 111 serve it j but if he, in turn, be laughed at, he ,\'ill remember that it is a common failing from which he has not always remained free, that placid good nature is a signal attribute of the gentleman, and that, if he have given real cause for laughter, there is no better means to deprive it of all its sting than freely to join in it. I have spoken of laughing at others only, not of laughing in general. ITe that can noyer heartily laugh can hardly have a heart at all, or must be of a heavy mind. .A. sound laugh at the proper time is the happy musie of a frank and confiding soul. It is the im­ pulsive and spontaneous song which the Crea­ tor gave to man, and to man alone, in lieu of all the lovely tones which he profusely granted to the warblers of the wood. But we must return to more serious sub­ jects before I conclude. They shall be treated of in two more remarks, the last with which I shall detain you. They will be very briefj but, young gentlemen, I invite your whole attention to them. Ponder them j for they 10 112 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLE)IAN.

are of momentous importance for your whole lives,-important even to your country.

:c IIabit is the best magistratc," was a wise saying of Lord Bacon's. Mere mental ac­ knowledgment of moral truth becomes power­ less when it is most important to apply it,­ in moments of great temptation, of provoca­ tion, 01' passion. If repeated and constant acting upon that truth has not induced a habit or grown into a virtue, it may be sufficiently strong to produce repentance after the offence, but not to guide before the wrong be com­ mitted. Apply yourselves, then, sedulously at once to act habitually by the highest standard of the gentleman,-to let a truly gentlemanly spirit permeate your being. No better opportunity to practise this moral rule is given you than your l)resent relation to your teachers. Let a gentlemanly tone ever subsist between you. You will thus not only make your lives pleasant and sow the seeds of happy reminiscence, but it will give new force and new meaning to the very instruc­ tion for the reception of which you have come CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEil-IAN. 113 hitber, and it will best prepare you for esta­ blishing that relation which is one of the most fruitful and blessed that can subsist beLween man and man: I mean friendship between the teacher and the taugbt,-a re­ lation of which we find so touching an exam­ ple in Socrates and his followers, and so holy a model in Christ and his disciples,-a relation which lends new strength to the mind to seize what is offered, and which in a great measure overcomes the difficulty ofcommunion between soul and soul. For all language, except in matbematics, is but approximation to the subject to be expressed, and affection is the readiest and truest interpreter of the ever-im­ perfect human word. Believe me, my young friends, however extensive the knowledge of your teacher, skilful his language, or ardent his zeal, and however close your attention may be, you will hear and learn far more if affec­ tion towards him enlivens that attention, and you will integrate with your very soul that which , without friendship between you and him , remains matter of purely intellectual 114: CIIARACTER OF TIlE GENTLE~IA.'\. activity, liable to be superseded by successive layers of knowledge. If thus you make the character of the gen­ tleman more and more your own, you will additionally prepare yourselves for the high and weighty trusts which await all of you as citizens of a commonwcalth in which we enjoy a rare degree of personal liberty. I have shown you how closely connected the charn,cter of the gentleman is with a high standard of true civil liberty, but it is necessary to dircct your mind, in n,ddition, to the fact that the]'e are difficulties in the wn,y of attaining to this high end, pecu­ liar to young Americans, while yet it may be one of the problcms the solution of which is assigued to us in history, to develo}) the pecu­ liar character of the high-bred republican gen­ tleman in a pervading national type, as it has been that of England to develop the character of the monarchical gentleman. It is difficult for princes to imbibe the true spirit of the gentleman, because thcir position and education naturally lead to the growth of selfishness; and so there are, on the other CHARACTER OF 'fUE GEN'rLE:llAN. 115 hand, difficulties, not insuperable, yet positive, in the way of carefully cultivating this cha­ ractcr, peculiar to a country like ours, in which large numbcrs ['.re constantly rolling westward and changing thcir dwellings, neighbors, and associations, in which a dcgree of succcss, in a worldly view, awaits almost with certainty health, industry, and prudence, without neces­ sarily requiring the addition of refinement of feelings 01' polish of conduct, and in which at the same time a greater amount of individual liberty is enjoyed than in any other country. Suffrage is almost universal, and, so far as the vote goes, all have equal weight: you see some persons rise to distinction, without any high claim to morality,religion, or gentlemanliness; and the power-holders, whether they be mon­ archs or the people, a few or many, ever listen to flattery. It is inherent in power; and it is a common belief-though I am convinced ofthe contrary-thatlarge masses are notflattered by gentlemanliness. Even if it were so, we would have no right to saerifiee so important a moral standard. Are we allowed to do any eyil 10* 11(3 CHARACTER OF TilE GEXTLE1IA~. which we may yct be fully persuaded would l)l'omote our worldly interest? Is it ever sufe, even in a purely prudential point of view, to be guided by secondury motives, when con­ duct and the choice of objects, not the selection of means, are the question? But, happily, it is not so. Even the least educated Lave an in­ stinctive regard for the Ligh-brcd gentleman, however they may contemn certain eounter­ feits of the gentleman, especially the dandy i and the acknowledgment on the part of a whole community that a man is a gentleman gives him a hold on it most important in all matters of action. Adhere to it. If you see others rise above you by practices which you contemn, you must remember that it is one of tLe very attributes of the gentleman to stand alone when occasion requires it, in dignity and self-possession, without conceit, but con­ scious that he has acted right, honorably, gentlemauly.* Distrust everyone who would

* The importance of the character of the gentleman in politics, especially in legislative bodies und in the lleprcsentutive in general, has been more fully discussed CITAIL\.CTER OF TITE GENTLE;l-IAN. 117 persua,de you to promote your interest by de­ scending. The elementary law of a,ll progress, be it religious, mental, political, or industrial, is that those who have talent, skill, character, or knowledge in advance of others should draw these after them and make the lower rise. This is the truly democratic law of united advancement, in which everyone leads in whatever he can lead. All else is suspicious aristocraey,-the aristocracy of a few, or the aristocracy ofthe low, if aristocracy is marked, as I think it is, by undue privilege, which is unbefitting to all men, be they a few or the many. Scan history, and you will find tha~ throughout the annals of civilization this uni­ form law prevails, that a favored mind per­ ceives a truth, gives utterance to it, is first disbelieved, derided, or :1ttacked,perh:1ps called upon to seal the truth with his death j but the truth is not lost on that :1ccount: it infuses itself into the minds of the very detractors j it spreads further and further, is discussed and by me in the chapters on the Duties of the Representa. tive in the second volume of "Political Ethics." 118 CIIARACTER OF THE GENTLE)IAN.

modified; it collects votaries sufficient to form a minority, and at length the minority swells into a majority, ,yhich ultimately establishes the principle in practice : so that the whole process has consisted in men being led up­ wards to the truth, not in truth descending downwards to a stagnant level of mediocrity, ignorance, or want of civilization. It requires :patience and gentlemanly forbearance; bllt is not Goel the most patient of all? You cannot l)oint out a single vast movement of mankind towards an essential improvement, which does not serve as an illustration of the law which I have just stated to you. At the very moment of writing these last words, I received opportunely the speech of Sir Robert Peel on the 30th of Junc,* in which he explains the reasons of his resignation and his defeat in Parliament, after having happily passed the free corn-tradebill; and as the reader is referred in some works to a diagram at the end of the volume, so shall I coneillde by point­

* In the year 1846. CIIARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 119 ing to that manly speech as a practical illus­ tration of much that I have said on the conduct of the gentlcman in politics. Outvoted in Par­ liament, discarded by the party with -whom he came into office, and seeing his successor in power, influence, and honors before him, he still speaks of his whole position, his antago­ nists, and his former friends now turned into bitter enemies, with calmness, dignity, and cheerful liberality, readily allowing that in It constitutional country the loss of power ought to be the natural consequence of a change of opinion upon a vital party question, that is, upon a subj ect of national magnitude. Yet he rejoices at having thllS come to different and truer views upon so essential a point as that of the daily bread of toiling multitudes, and frankly ascribes the chief merit of this mo­ mentous progress to a person* who belongs to

* I1Ir. R. Cobden, Member of Parliament, and leader of the Anti Corn-Law League, has deserved well of mankind. There is but one omission in Sir Robert Peel's speech with which we feel tempted to find fault. No one admires more than myself Mr. Cobden's wise and 120 CHARACTER OF THE GEN'fI,E;\IAN. a sphere of politics totally different from that in which he himself bad been accustomed to energetic course, w hieh, indeed, proeUl'ed him the offer of a place in the Cabinet from the Whigs when they were forming their new administration; but even his labors and the arduous exertions of the League would have remained unavniling for a long time yet, as it seems, had not divine wisdom sent at this precise juncture the potato-rot, and thus aided one of the greatest advance­ ments of mankind to come to maturity. 'rhe historian must mention, together with Cobden and the League, the potato-rot. This acknowledgment of Sir Robert Peel's is another evidence of the invaluable usefulness of that greatest of institutions which chal'ILcterize our own modern liberty, -principled and persevering opposition, to which Sir Robert Peel bore the same striking testimony, when, in 1829, the Catholic Emancipation bill had been carried by the Wellington and Peel cabinet, and the latter said, in the Commons, "One parting word, and I have done. I have received in the speech of my noble friend the member for Donegal, testimonies of approbation which are grateful to my soul; and thcy have been liberally awarded to me by gentlemen on the other side of the House, in a manner which does honor to the forbearance of party among us. They have, however, one and all, awarded to me a credit which I do not deserve for settling this question. The credit belongs to others, and not to me: it belongs to 1\11'. Fox, to 111'. Grattan, to Mr. Plun­ ket, to the gentlemen opposite, and to an illustrious and right honorable friend of mine who is no more [mean­ CIlARACTER OF TIlE GENTLE;\IAN. 121

move. It is a gentlemanly speech, leaving a corresponding impression in his own conntry and throughout ours, conciliating, and com­ manding esteem,-an cft'ect such as always attends a conduct truly gentlemanly, where civilization dwells among men.

ing Mr. Canning]. By their efforts, ill spite oj my oppo­ SitiOIl, it has proved victorious." And may not be added here, with propriety, the reforms of the penal code of England, so perseveringly urged by Sir Samuel Romilly and Sir James Mackintosh, and at length partially ndopted by Sir Robert Peel, in 1830? Wellington,-who, in a conversation with Canning on certain statements made by the Emperor Nicholas, had said, "I see what you mean; but could I suppose tbat the fellow was a d--liar ?"-Wellington, in the House of Lords, in honor of Pcel's memory, soon after his sndden death, praiseu abovc all his truthfulness. l'her6 may be party men wbo doubt this: I state the fact tbat a soldier and statesmnn like Wellington praised above all other things, in a statesman likc Peel, his veracity, as a fact deserving to be remembereu by all youth of modern free countries.

THE END. ' II